Cut by Washington in August 2012 after a pair of erratic seasons, Gano lands a big contract from the Panthers, who feared losing him in free agency. This deal was driven by kickoffs and improved field goal accuracy.
I see that Carolina has re-signed Graham Gano, and he didn’t come cheap – four years for $12.4 million. They supposedly were considering using the franchise tag on him.
That’s a hefty price tag for a guy Washington gave up on less than two years ago. He missed too many field goals during his two years there.
But Gano seems to be more of an average-type field goal kicker now. He’s coming around. He went 24 of 27 last year.
And on kickoffs, he’s right up there with the very best in the league. He’s got a cannon, and that’s a real weapon. It allows Carolina to not have to worry too much about covering kickoffs.
Over the last two years, 73 percent of his kickoffs have resulted in touchbacks. That’s No. 1 in the league among the 28 guys with at least 100. (Last, ironically, is the guy who’s kicking in Washington now – Kai Forbath – who’s down at 25 percent.). Forbath might be slightly better than Gano on field goals (maybe) but it appears Washington erred in giving up on Gano in August of 2012.
| Touchback Percentages, 2012-2013 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Rank | Player | Pct |
| 1. | Graham Gano | 72.8% |
| 2. | Matt Prater | 69.5% |
| 3. | Michael Koenen | 66.0% |
| 4. | Greg Zuerlein | 61.8% |
| 5. | Matt Bosher | 57.2% |
| 6. | Blair Walsh | 57.1% |
| 7. | Sebastian Janikowski | 56.3% |
| 8. | Stephen Gostkowski | 56.3% |
| 9. | Thomas Morstead | 56.1% |
| 10. | Justin Tucker | 54.8% |
| 11. | Pat McAfee | 52.1% |
| 12. | Robbie Gould | 50.7% |
| 13. | Ryan Succop | 50.3% |
| 14. | Josh Scobee | 48.4% |
| 15. | Dan Bailey | 48.2% |
| 16. | Rob Bironas | 47.3% |
| 17. | David Akers | 47.0% |
| 18. | Steven Hauschka | 46.9% |
| 19. | Dan Carpenter | 44.1% |
| 20. | Jay Feely | 42.5% |
| 21. | Phil Dawson | 41.0% |
| 22. | Alex Henery | 40.6% |
| 23. | Mike Nugent | 35.6% |
| 24. | Mason Crosby | 33.6% |
| 25. | Shaun Suisham | 33.5% |
| 26. | Nick Folk | 30.4% |
| 27. | Nick Novak | 26.3% |
| 28. | Kai Forbath | 25.0% |
—Ian Allan