K Adam Vinatieri retiring

[TecmoSuperJoe]

Okay, let's just get this out the way: Justin Tucker > Adam Vinatieri as a kicker. But Vinatieri has the better storybook career, and had some quality years into his 30's. We'll see with Tucker, but if he continues on his trajectory he'll ****** the GOAT crown. Both will be in the HOF. 

Edited May 28, 2021 by TecmoSuperJoe

[biggie.]

12 minutes ago, TecmoSuperJoe said:

Okay, let's just get this out the way: Justin Tucker > Adam Vinatieri as a kicker. But Vinatieri has the better storybook career, and had some quality years into his 30's. We'll see with Tucker, but if he continues on his trajectory he'll ****** the GOAT crown. Both will be in the HOF. 

No kicker will have as many moments in the clutch than Vinatieri.

[TecmoSuperJoe]

 

 

Edited May 31, 2021 by TecmoSuperJoe

[lancerman]

On 5/27/2021 at 9:54 AM, Dalan162 said:

Clutchest kicker ever. Is there any other kicker in NFL history that has 2 SB game winning field goals ?

2 game winning field goals and he single handily got the 06 Colts past the Ravens so they could have their title run. Not to mention the first SB was the first game winning score that occurred on a final play in the SB 

[lancerman]

On 5/28/2021 at 11:23 AM, TecmoSuperJoe said:

Okay, let's just get this out the way: Justin Tucker > Adam Vinatieri as a kicker. But Vinatieri has the better storybook career, and had some quality years into his 30's. We'll see with Tucker, but if he continues on his trajectory he'll ****** the GOAT crown. Both will be in the HOF. 

Kicking is getting so optimized that there will be a lot of statistically better kickers going forward in pure efficiency. 9 of the 10 top kickers in FG% percentage are all current guys. One bad decline season is going to move even Tucker to out of top 3. 
 

Vinatieri isn’t even top 20 anymore and all the kickers ahead of gun debuted after. 
 

But Vinatieri will remain the GOAT because he has moments that nobody else will ever have. Two teams can directly thank Vinatieri for winning them games in SB runs. Vinatieri probably has 3 of the top 5 most memorable kicks of all time. He was legitimately the only kicker that was one of the faces of a dynasty. Nobody is going to touch that 

Edited June 4, 2021 by lancerman

[TecmoSuperJoe]

4 hours ago, lancerman said:

Kicking is getting so optimized that there will be a lot of statistically better kickers going forward in pure efficiency. 9 of the 10 top kickers in FG% percentage are all current guys. One bad decline season is going to move even Tucker to out of top 3. 
 

Vinatieri isn’t even top 20 anymore and all the kickers ahead of gun debuted after. 
 

But Vinatieri will remain the GOAT because he has moments that nobody else will ever have. Two teams can directly thank Vinatieri for winning them games in SB runs. Vinatieri probably has 3 of the top 5 most memorable kicks of all time. He was legitimately the only kicker that was one of the faces of a dynasty. Nobody is going to touch that 

That's true. For probably a lot of people storybook is just as important as production. I do wonder if something alluding to that is actually in the HOF bylaws. 

At least Adam was one of the better kickers of his era production-wise, and didn't just have capitalize on a few kicks compared to an otherwise unremarkable career. 

[lancerman]

10 hours ago, TecmoSuperJoe said:

That's true. For probably a lot of people storybook is just as important as production. I do wonder if something alluding to that is actually in the HOF bylaws. 

At least Adam was one of the better kickers of his era production-wise, and didn't just have capitalize on a few kicks compared to an otherwise unremarkable career. 

So Adam started in 1996. There's nobody ahead of Adam that debuted his year or before him in FG%. He's 25th of all time in that stat and 14 guys ahead of him are current active kickers. So it's just a position where it gets more and more optimized. Kickers are generally on much better fields than when Adam started and training probably got more efficient. 

Another thing worth noting is that all kicker efficiency stats have extremely small margins. Like one or two bad seasons at the end of your career can totally throw a kickers all time placement there. Which is why volume matters alot because it shows they were good enough to keep on for a long enough time to accumulate those numbers. And Adam is wayyyy ahead of everyone in FG's made. 

He has the bulk stats, he clearly set the bar until newer generations got more optimized, he has the insane longevity and then he has the moments. 

The longevity and moments are the big ones because it's what will really seperate him from the pack. The truth of the matter is, it's harder for a kicker to get notoriety. Dan Marino won zero SB's, but he was a QB who had a large platform every week to have heroics that people remember. Most kickers won't even get the stage to make the kicks Adam did. 

[TecmoSuperJoe]

1 hour ago, lancerman said:

So Adam started in 1996. There's nobody ahead of Adam that debuted his year or before him in FG%. He's 25th of all time in that stat and 14 guys ahead of him are current active kickers. So it's just a position where it gets more and more optimized. Kickers are generally on much better fields than when Adam started and training probably got more efficient. 

Another thing worth noting is that all kicker efficiency stats have extremely small margins. Like one or two bad seasons at the end of your career can totally throw a kickers all time placement there. Which is why volume matters alot because it shows they were good enough to keep on for a long enough time to accumulate those numbers. And Adam is wayyyy ahead of everyone in FG's made. 

He has the bulk stats, he clearly set the bar until newer generations got more optimized, he has the insane longevity and then he has the moments. 

The longevity and moments are the big ones because it's what will really seperate him from the pack. The truth of the matter is, it's harder for a kicker to get notoriety. Dan Marino won zero SB's, but he was a QB who had a large platform every week to have heroics that people remember. Most kickers won't even get the stage to make the kicks Adam did. 

I'm still surprised Adam didn't garner more accolades as a kicker in his prime though. He made two Pro Bowls/All Pro selections by the time he was 32, and didn't make another one until he was 42. Meanwhile Morten Anderson had 5 banner years by the time he was 35. David Akers 6 by age 37. It's weird that Adam didn't garner more favor when he was in the prime of making all of those iconic kicks, and I'm having trouble remembering why. 

But that's mostly small potatoes. He was one of the greatest kickers ever. 

Edited June 5, 2021 by TecmoSuperJoe