Factoid
The Ravens made a smart move, I think, signing Shayne Graham. They’re paying him more than usual for a kicker – I’m seeing a $1.5 million base with incentives that could push it to $2.5 million – but that’s an important position for them. They’ll be in some close games, where a 40-yard field goal determines whether they win or lose. They lost one of those game last year in Minnesota.
Clearly, they weren’t going to into the season with Billy Cundiff; he’s simply not good enough. And if they haggled too much with Graham, they potentially could have lost him to the Jets, who are stuck for now with Nick Folk.
The only slight concern with Graham is whether he’s mentally over the two clutch misses he had in the playoffs last year against the Jets. Marvin Lewis says those misses played a role in the Bengals not re-signing him.
"Unfortunately he has the demons of the last kicks here when he didn’t make them,” Lewis said. “That’s what the fans remember around here is the kicks that he missed.”
Nevertheless, Graham’s overall track record is outstanding.
MOST ACCURATE KICKERS, 2007-2009
FG FGA Pct
77 87 88.5 Jeff Reed
83 94 88.3 Nate Kaeding
91 104 87.5 Rob Bironas
83 95 87.4 Stephen Gostkowski
75 86 87.2 Shayne Graham
75 86 87.2 Ryan Longwell
81 93 87.1 Robbie Gould
60 69 87.0 John Carney
46 53 86.8 Dan Carpenter
63 73 86.3 Joe Nedney
75 87 86.2 Jay Feely
74 86 86.0 John Kasay
73 85 85.9 Phil Dawson
51 60 85.0 Lawrence Tynes
68 81 84.0 Jason Elam
82 98 83.7 Rian Lindell
71 85 83.5 Jason Hanson
78 94 83.0 Josh Brown
63 76 82.9 Matt Stover
58 70 82.9 Olindo Mare
67 81 82.7 Matt Bryant
62 75 82.7 Neil Rackers
89 109 81.7 David Akers
73 91 80.2 Sebastian Janikowski
75 94 79.8 Kris Brown
50 63 79.4 Adam Vinatieri
64 81 79.0 Nick Folk
75 95 78.9 Shaun Suisham
85 109 78.0 Mason Crosby
56 73 76.7 Matt Prater
49 66 74.2 Josh Scobee
—Ian Allan
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