Brandt’s Rant: Rian "Me miss key kicks" Lindell

by Stephen Brandt

From Dictionary.com: Place-kicker n : (football) a kicker who makes a place kick for a goal
Isn’t the job description for kickers in the NFL to MAKE THE KICK? Notice how the definition doesn’t include to miss a kick or the person whose job is to try to kick points. Don’t you kind of think if that was your only job you would be perfect? Rian Lindell definitely doesn’t fill the job description. Why is he still a Bill? WHY? The Buffalo Bills haven’t exactly had a stellar record with kickers in clutch situations. I don’t want to go through them all because I don’t need to be depressed.

Lindell just seems to have a mental block when it comes to clutch time. I have really never seen it, he can hit when there’s no pressure on him, but when the team counts on him, CLANK. We should be in the playoffs, but with this kicker we aren’t. DANG IT. When will the madness stop? Will TD come to his senses and cut this guy? Probably not, he tends to stick with people a little long. I will not blame Ralph for anything; he’s a god for bringing the world the Bills.

But what to do? Waste a draft pick on a kicker who might not pan out? Sign someone off of the street? Sign one of the ancient Andersons? See this is why we are posters and fans, and they get paid for decisions, they for the most part know what they are doing. That’s not saying that I couldn’t scout a good kicker or a left tackle, but they have more experience. We just have to trust the scouting department with this one, but I will say, he loses another game for us, Buffalo might riot.

Here’s some of the names for kickers in the draft (I’m no draftnick) Mike “no relation to Ted” Nugent, Jonathan Nichols of Mississippi, Dave Rayner of Michigan State (even though I despise Michigan State), and Rhys Lloyd of Minnesota. Do you want to trust our pressure moments on a rookie kicker? Is Lindell better than these players? Yes, I have no qualms about, but is he better in the clutch than them? Probably not. So draft a rookie and sign some bum off of the street.