Is Hodges the Answer Long-Term?
As reported, the Jets have signed Reggie Hodges to punt for the team. Mangini told the press in his morning press conference today that
“We had a high grade on him coming out of college, and we follow those guys based on their college grades and see how they progress. He’s worked in a couple of these different preseason camps and he’s worked independent kicking [academies], but we followed that pretty closely and we watched his development over time and been pretty pleased with it … we felt he came in and had an outstanding workout … pretty impressive from my base comparison, and talking to Mike [Westhoff, ST Coach] and the scouts, we all felt the same way. The other thing he does is gives us some flexibility kickoffs and PAT field goals … functional in those areas, has the ability to throw the ball, which gives us some flexibility with fakes. Another athletic guy and gives us some ability to develop over time.”
Mangini also mentioned that he has other guys who can work as holders, noting Brad Smith and Kellen Clemens as potential replacements.
But when you look at his career punting average, I don’t know whether the team just got better or not at the position, or worse. In his one year of NFL regular season games, Hodges punted for a 37.4 punt / 32.2 net average in 2005, while Graham punted for a 43.8 punt / 37.5 net average across his time in the pros. Hopefully, he’s improved in over two years, but I can’t find stats to back it up and am going on who he was over two years ago.
Not sure yet what they’ve seen and why they hired him, but I hope to see it this coming Monday night. My guess is it’s a combination of Asst. GM Scott Cohen knowing him from his time with the Eagles, and his grades as Mangini noted along with the fact that they seem to often ask “did this guy play for the Patriots? OK then!” I’m dubious of how this will work out, but we’ll see. Clearly they have a second option ready since they signed Waylon Prather to the Practice Squad.
Filed under: Main Page
It’s just weird what happened to Ben Graham. He seemed to have so much upside and then slowly went downhill. Maybe he just got bored and homesick.
Glad to see they have a plan B
According to Wikipedia (so take it FWIW):
“The St. Louis Rams drafted Hodges in the sixth round (210th overall) of the 2005 NFL Draft. He was signed to a three-year contract on July 27, 2005. Hodges won the Rams’ punting job out of training camp, beating out veteran Bryan Barker. Hodges went on to appear in five games for the Rams, averaging 38.0 yards and 31.0 net yards in 22 attempts. Hodges’ poor performance caused the team to release him on October 10 and re-sign Barker for the remainder of the season.
“On November 2, 2005, Philadelphia Eagles head coach Andy Reid said the team would sign Hodges to replace Dirk Johnson, who was out with a hernia. Hodges appeared in three games for the Eagles, averaging 36.8 yards in 19 punts with one blocked. He was waived by the team November 22. He spent the rest of the 2005 season out of football.
“The Eagles re-signed Hodges to a two-year future contract on January 13, 2006. The deal included base salaries of $310,000 (2006) and $385,000 (2007). However, he did not play in the team’s first preseason game and was waived on August 8.
“On August 18, 2006, the Indianapolis Colts signed Hodges, however he failed to beat out longtime Colts punters Hunter Smith for the job and was released on September 3. He spent the 2006 season out of football.
“The Colts re-signed Hodges to a three-year contract on February 23, 2007. He against lost out to Smith for the Colts’ punting job, failing to appear in the team’s first two preseason games before being released on August 23. He spent the season out of football.
“After failing to make an NFL team for each of the past two seasons, Hodges signed with the Seattle Seahawks on April 11, 2008. He was released by the team on August 30 during final cuts.”
Extra glad we have a plan B!!!
Bassett:
Happen to know why we didn’t sign Kapinos ? Didn’t he punt very well during head to head w/Graham posibly even better untill BG’s 89 YD fluke?
On a separate note: our offense w/ Farve must out play theis w/Rivers, period. Our defense will show up but our offense must keep up !!
This action should not be viewed positive. What it does reflect is that Tangini paid no mind to the kicking game/special teams during the off-season and throughout training camp. They assumed they were set, provided no competition and now are living with the results of their lack of preperation. Now we have a poor Kicker replacing Nugent and a relatively unknown, inexperience, non-producing punter. Considering that field position and special teams killed us last week, this does not bode well. Hopefullu, the weak schedule after San Diego will help us get by without it coming back to haunt us.
After watching him punt Sunday, they had no choice. Its the right move. And if this guy is no good, we’ll just bring on the next guy.
In news unrelated to Ben Graham, I wanted to pass along information about a new venture I have started with 2 of my friends that I think might be of interest to Jets fans.
The company is called Tailwaiters and what we do is provide Fans with all the supplies they need to tailgate. So if you are too lazy to organize your own tailgate, or dont have enough trunk space, we will bring you everything you need – Uncooked food, Grills, Tables, Drinks, Chairs, Utensils, etc.
Check out the website if you are interested: http://www.Tailwaiters.com or contact us at Questions@tailwaiters.com
david i,
They actually brought in a kicker to compete with Ben Graham during pre season. But i guess graham beat him out.
We had a punter competition. They went with the vet. If you read Hodge’s resume you can tell that at least 75% of the league does the exact same thing. We can poke holes all we want but I respect Westhoff and he vouched for O’Dea and I’m sure they didn’t see the shank fest Graham put on as a possibility.
On a somewhat unrelated note, I’m sick of us following the “Patriot way.” They probably did ask themselves “did this guy play for the Patriots? OK then!” When will we develop the Jet way? When will other teams want to emulate us? Shouldn’t Tangini be striving to create our own winning style and identity? It’s great to follow the Patriots or Giants or whomever initially, but let’s have the league playing Jet football.
i agree that graham had to go, but the problem exposes an overarching flaw with management. they seem to deal with problems after the fact, and often have no contingency plan in place. there was no contingency plan after pete kendall’s trade, and there was no contingency plan for someone to kick extra points in case nugent got hurt. here, they addressed the problem after graham contributed to the loss rather than in the off-season, pre-season or even mid-week before the pats game. they react to problems rather than anticipating them.
Najy/Just a Green Guy:
Its only a competition if they really intended the guy to compete. Not just hang out and punt the ball back to the guy that last year was publicly declared to be the only player who’s job was garaunteed. BTW: they cut the guy so they can give his jersey to Favre. Remember, he wore number 4.
Also, you don’t go from being great to bad in one game. They obviously were not paying too close attention to detial during the pre-season, otherwise, they would have had someone kick the extra point if Nugent got hurt in Miami. Like he did. Never having anyone else even try one during camp is poor planning. For cyring out loud, my High School Football coach had three different guys in line to kick extra points if our kicker went down.
If it is such a good thing, are you actually telling me that the Feeley’s miss on Sunday was a positive? Any time any player change is made during the season, you can expect mitakes being made. Like missing the 31 yarder he missed on a solid opening drive and subsequently being a rally killer. The first shank this guy kicks will make you realize it. Like you did Sunday when you saw how it wasn’t wo easy to replace Nugent in the middle of the week.
Could someone please explain why a punter is so often the holder for kicks in the NFL? I always heard that a backup QB was the better choice in case of fakes or if the play broke down, he could throw, etc. What use is a punter in those situations?
Punters are often holders because they are accustomed to working with the long snapper.
zach, best of luck with the venture, hope you guys are succesful (maybe then you can buy the rest of us some psl’s!)
Replacing any starter isn’t easy. Kapinos was competing in mini camp b4 they had the guy who wore #4. It seemed they were keeping Graham because his punts are tougher to field because of his kicking motion. It is a good reason and if he could have managed to kick the ball straight when he was supposed to we would have seen it pay dividends. He could have been a practice superstar.
David look inside ask yourself how old you are and consider Mangini is not even 40 and under the microscope of not only a poor writing over reacting media but a very large uneducated (when it comes to football. I blame ESPN a lot), rabid fan base. Everyone has 20 20 hindsight. If we had won none of this would have meant anything. It’s week 2 and I’m in new rush to start from scratch and lose a defense that finally stops the run. So we can switch to the 4-3 and complain how we should have never left the 3-4. It’s like a broken record.
People have been clamoring for the team not to be satisfied with “being close”. So they went out and cut someone who did not perform. Isn’t this what we’ve been asking for?
ian
I couldn’t have said it better
fafa- Yes it is.
fafa, not exactly.
We did not want the team to then sign someone, at least based on stats and the fact that he could not hold down a job at three other teams, likely to do worse.
harlan
We don’t even know how he will do. I find it hard to believe they want to sabotage themselves and I’m sure that filling a spot, even on a long week, and prepping them isn’t easy. We can’t expect them to weave dung into gold all the time. Realistic Expectations!!
The Jets weighed their options and this is what they came up with. I would say they learned from thier mistake by putting another punter on the PS having a backup plan.
Ian:
You nailed it. You said what I meant to say much better. It is indicative of a reactionary approach to problem solving. The irony with all of this is that Woody preaches consistancy within the organization. The product they are putting on the field is much better than last year, but the key to it being successful is getting chemistry. Changing players who have a role, a key role, ween in and week out, being swapped out, doesn’t help team chemistry. Cutting Graham is making him somewhat of a fall guy, when in fact others were to blame even more so. Being proactive would’ve meant having someone in the preseason to seriously compete for punting ad kicking, which they really did not do. If they did pay attention to it, they would have brought someone else in.
I am a huge supporter of Mangini and I know the team will gell over time this season and get better, but these first two games have annoyed the hell out of me for the game time decisions being made.
Sweating it out in Miami over the loss of a kicker and conservative approach to closing out the game and last weeks red zone inneficiencies, kicking game calamities are embarrassing.
I don’t care how old Mangini is, but he has to stop telling everyone how much he pays such great attention to details and start paying attention to details.
Harlan, who did you want them to sign, when you cut a player after the season starts the only ones that are available are ones that couldn’t hold down a job. Geez you guys are tough on the front office, not one of you have even see this guy kick but already this was a bad move, its not like they had Ray Guy in his prime and decided to go with this guy instead?
Lets be reasonable here, this a punter we are talking about, not the most crucial position on the team, just need him not to shank it on a regular basis like Graham had been and let the coverage guys do the rest, and at least now this position will be evaluated week to week so that if he doens’t perfom I’m sure we’ll bring in someone else.
David I, the player change from Nugent to Feely was not the Jets fault, they had no choice but to bring in another kicker when Nugent went down, and with the roster limitations now in the NFL very few teams will waste an extrta spot on a backup kicker/ kickoff specialist.
Can we just give this guy the chance to fail before we call for Mangini and Tannenbaum’s heads again?
This doesn’t sound like a long term fix. Can Brad Smith punt?
Is it legal to let Favre throw it on kickoffs?
If problem solving weren’t reactionary, how would you know? If a thousand problems were proactively solved, you wouldn’t have a clue. Not that you do, but that’s another post.
Graham is ranked 19th among punters. That means there are at least 13 guys worse then him in the league not including Reggie Hodges . Graham will be back punting in the the NFL this year.
I would also add that Feely’s miss might not have been completely due to Feely. Kicking is very precise and timed. Graham looked to me like he had a little trouble spinning and placing the ball on the miss. It wasn’t as clean as it should be and I should note that the snap was right on target. Maybe that was the difference that tipped Graham to be out.
I was also thinking about the holder issue. The K-Ball may have an impact here. They are brand new balls brought in for specifically kicking. Since the Punter uses these balls too and the QBs do not, that might explain why teams have trended towards the Punter. I remember it was almost always always the backup QB in the 90s. Maybe the K-Ball is the reason?
Sec108
Are you serious when you stated-
Lets be reasonable here, this a punter we are talking about, not the most crucial position on the team
sec108
read these two posts by swizzle and tell me how the punter is not crucial
__________________________________________
swizzle81, on September 15th, 2008 at 10:49 am Said:
Field position and special teams killed the Jets. I dont care what type of offense you run, its almost impossible to win a game with this field position/play calling and yet, they still had there chances. Not one damn possession in Pats territory.
start yds result
NYJ 20 67yds Missed FG
NYJ 20 2yds Punt
NYJ 20 77yds Field Goal
NYJ 20 -1yds Punt
NYJ 25 8yds End of Half
NYJ 23 1yds Intercepted Pass
NYJ 20 5yds Punt
NYJ 20 80yds Touchdown
NYJ 20 -13yds Punt
swizzle81, on September 15th, 2008 at 10:54 am Said:
By comparison heres the Pats field position, 5 drives in Jets territory, the Jets D did there job, by the 4th they were tired as hell when Lamont ran all over them.
NWE 21 76yds Field Goal
NYJ 48 29yds Field Goal
NWE 27 24yds Punt
NYJ 48 6yds Punt
NWE 21 -3yds Punt
NYJ 31 31yds Touchdown
NYJ 39 30yds Field Goal
NWE 20 71yds Field Goal
NYJ 47 21yds End of Game
sec108
I’m not calling for anyone’s head. I think this team needs time to come together and I know Feeley was added due to an injury. I think Mangini’s scrambling to find someone to kick an extra point during the Dolphin game showed lack of preperation.
I am very disappointed Mangini has been missing some of the details and finer points. Now we have added a new kicker, punter, find a new place holder. Not the most important players on the roster, but when it comes to losing a game because Brad Smith misplaced a James Dearth snap as he held it for Jay Feeley, we’ll all have to listen to another depressing post game conference.
pat d,
yes I was serious, I’m not saying field position isn’t important, I know it is, I witnessed just how important it was in person on Sunday, all I was saying is that we are critiquing this like we just added a franchise QB or RB. Graham stats probably looked decent overall, but he had way to many shanks and bad punts for my liking the last few years and I can’t really see this guy being any worse, at least they auditioned a few guys and picked the one they thought was best, if he sucks it up too then by all means kill the front office. I guess I am not as concerned because kicking games to me are like bullpens in baseball, their success can vary greatly from year to year with little ryhme or reason so I am not so quick to indict Tangini for the early season failure of it.
David I, I wasn’t referring to you on the calling for the head, that was another poster I forgot to list sorry. My point about Feely was that having to replace Nugent was a circumstance beyond their control, shoud they have had a contingency plan in Miami, absolutely, but that contingency is over when the game ends and then you look for a more permanent solution, so Feely would have been a new part regardless.
Apparently Graham’s holding for FGs detiorated as well as his consistency, which is the key. Graham became wildly inconsistent and there’s nothing that control freak head coaches hate more than inconsistent punting or kicking. Also, I guess I was the only one who thought that, on balance, Feely was better than Nugent has been lately. Their stats are virtually the same for FGs between 30-39 yards (Nugent missed his only attempt at this distance at Miami) and Nugent was better at KOs. I don’t get this love for Nugent, like the rest of the team, he severely underperformed last season and his KOs have been a joke.
sec108
It seems we actually agree.
Firing Mangini would be a big mistake. I’m tired of having a new coach every three years. That is a recipe for failure. The guy is young and in his first head coaching job. He has made mistakes. I have criticised Mangini but it is at least three years too early to call for his head.
Also a player isn’t a bust until they have three years in the league
Zack:
I saw your web site and it loks and the packages sound great. Congratulations on a great idea!! You are providing a service to lots of people that otherwise couldn’t enjoy. Good luck in your new venture !!
Hank
ALL THE FIRE MANGINI TALK IS JUST LIKE YELLING FIRE IN A THEATER, IT ALL STARTED WITH PENNIGTON HATERS !!
Why would anyone hate Pennington? He was a solid B player for years before his recent decline.
First of all I liked Chad but really like Brett. Mangini has let details get away from him this year which is NOT a good sign. Hodges doesn’t sound to me like a huge improvement unless he had a leg transplant or was on steroids or growth hormones last year. Let’s wait and see. But I still say, MANGINI MUST GO!!!!
“Harlan, who did you want them to sign, when you cut a player after the season starts”
Since he had a bad season last year, what I would have wanted is for our FO to have searched under every rock and tree, brought in the best guy(s) to compete in OTAs and training camp and go into the season with the best guy.
Letting a two year vet go after two games in his third year after zero competition in OTAs and TC and preseason does not seem like good personnel management to me.
You are right, now it is harder to find the right guy. Looking in January might have produced a different search and a competition might have avoided this late mistake.
harlan
It’s hard to rate punters. Graham might have a better career average than Hodges, but last year and so far this season, he has shanked critical punts and he’s been kicking line drives with little hang time. Coverage units need that hang time to make a play. Maybe (and I am just speculating) Hodges is more accurate and has better hang time, so they sacrificed distance to allow the coverage team to do its job. We won’t know until they’re on the field this week in SD, so we’ll just have to wait.