What will the Phins do with their Kicking Concerns?

The Dolphins drafted Caleb Sturgis in 2013 and he was able to unseat Dan Carpenter as the starting kicker last season. Sturgis began the season on fire, but came back to rookie reality towards the middle and end of the season. He battled through an early training camp groin issue and it appears that he has aggravated that same injury this training camp.

The Dolphins brought in John Potter, he came in cold off the bench in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers game and nailed two long field goals of 48 and 51 yards. Potter has looked like a legitimate contender to out kick Sturgis for the starting spot, however he injured his hip after kicking a 26 yard field goal in the first quarter of the Dallas Preseason game.

Instead of having a kicking competition between two solid kickers, the Dolphins now do not have a healthy kicker on the roster, and both Potter and Sturgis have no definitive time table for a return. The Dolphins have already begun scrambling for possible replacements and have signed Jake Rogers, who was undrafted out of Cincinnati in 2011. Rogers has never kicked in an NFL game before, and has bounced around 5 different NFL camps. Most football gambling fans would bet that Rogers is not going to be the answer.

The Dolphins need to find someone who has some NFL experience kicking field goals, because as we saw 2 years ago with Dan Carpenter, field goal kickers can win or lose games for a team. The Dolphins are going to be a competitive team this season, and they are going to need some clutch kicks at the end of the game. This is not a position that a team can under value. Kickers can win or loss games, and at the moment the Dolphins do not have a healthy leg on the team. They need to figure this issue out before the first game of the season.