The Dolphins have officially made their 53 man roster. Although, there could be a few tweaks at the back-end of the roster depending on what players around the league Miami deems as worthy to upgrade some of the depth on their team. The most surprising and historic move to get down to 53 men, is that the Dolphins cut their veteran Pro Bowl Punter Brandon Fields and 3rd year Kicker Caleb Sturgis. Not only did they cut both of their starting kickers, but they replaced them with two rookies, which were both undrafted rookies. I looked through the annals of history to see the last time an NFL team started the season with an undrafted Rookie Punter and Kicker, and we just might be the first. If any Miami Dolphins news fans can find something please let the rest of us know.
This move can either be a monstrous mistake or prophetic genius – it certainly is a gamble for the best sportsbooks. Football is a three part game that consists of offense, defense and special teams – most forget how crucial special teams are. This year is the first year in recent history that Miami’s offense and defense both appear to be on track to be top 10 in the league, possibly even top 5 depending on how optimistic you want to be. However, I will admit that I am worried that our special teams kicking game could have some issues.
Even if both turn out to be solid kickers, the fact is they are both undrafted Rookies, and they are going to have some bumps along the learning curve. This is not college anymore and the bright lights on Sunday, and the three night games this season could have a detrimental effect on the nerves of these two ‘wet behind the ears’ rooks’.
I am definitely more worried about Franks, because a field goal kicker has the power to win or lose football games for a team. It will be interesting to see how Franks holds up when he needs to make a clutch kick at the end of a game. Sure, I would love to see the Phins roll through teams and not have to worry about close games, but that is not going to happen, even if they have a winning record this season. Hopefully Franks has nerves of steel, and he can continue to improve on his accuracy. His leg strength is definitely not in question, but when a kicker has a strong leg, sometimes they falter on the accuracy.
How does the rest of the Miami Dolphins News fans feel about the phins new undrafted rookie kickers? Is this going to be a lingering issue for this season, or can these two youngsters step up when its game time?
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