Whoever winds up kicking for the Saints has a good chance of being a top-10 kicker. That’s a high-scoring offense.
Most expect that will be Shayne Graham, the veteran they signed late last year.
But Jeff Duncan, long-time beat writer for The Times-Picayune, says he’s been watching the team practices and it looks like youngster Derek Dimke is a lot better than Graham. Definitely has a stronger leg, and he’s been outperforming him in practices.
In our eyes, Graham is far from a safe bet. A bunch of teams have dumped him, and he was out of the league for most of last year. He missed a pair of field goals in the playoff loss at Seattle.
If Dimke sticks, he’s a candidate to be the most unlikely of the top-10 kickers.
If not for lousy accuracy, the Saints probably would have ranked 10th in scoring at that position last year – they could have finished with 144 points if every kick had been made.
| POSSIBLE KICKING POINTS | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | XP | XPA | FG | FGA | Pts | Poss |
| New England | 44 | 44 | 38 | 41 | 158 | 167 |
| Indianapolis | 34 | 34 | 35 | 40 | 139 | 154 |
| Denver | 75 | 75 | 25 | 26 | 150 | 153 |
| San Diego | 42 | 42 | 34 | 37 | 144 | 153 |
| Green Bay | 42 | 42 | 33 | 37 | 141 | 153 |
| San Francisco | 44 | 44 | 32 | 36 | 140 | 152 |
| Seattle | 44 | 44 | 33 | 35 | 143 | 149 |
| Baltimore | 26 | 26 | 38 | 41 | 140 | 149 |
| Arizona | 37 | 37 | 30 | 36 | 127 | 145 |
| New Orleans | 48 | 48 | 24 | 32 | 120 | 144 |
| Buffalo | 32 | 32 | 33 | 36 | 131 | 140 |
| Dallas | 47 | 47 | 28 | 30 | 131 | 137 |
| Kansas City | 52 | 52 | 22 | 28 | 118 | 136 |
| Pittsburgh | 39 | 39 | 30 | 32 | 129 | 135 |
| NY Jets | 27 | 27 | 33 | 36 | 126 | 135 |
| Miami | 33 | 33 | 26 | 34 | 111 | 135 |
| Chicago | 45 | 46 | 26 | 29 | 123 | 133 |
| Minnesota | 43 | 43 | 26 | 30 | 121 | 133 |
| Houston | 26 | 26 | 26 | 35 | 104 | 131 |
| Philadelphia | 45 | 45 | 23 | 28 | 114 | 129 |
| Tennessee | 41 | 41 | 25 | 29 | 116 | 128 |
| Oakland | 37 | 37 | 21 | 30 | 100 | 127 |
| Carolina | 42 | 42 | 24 | 27 | 114 | 123 |
| Atlanta | 39 | 39 | 24 | 27 | 111 | 120 |
| Cincinnati | 52 | 53 | 18 | 22 | 106 | 119 |
| St. Louis | 34 | 34 | 26 | 28 | 112 | 118 |
| Tampa Bay | 31 | 31 | 23 | 29 | 100 | 118 |
| Detroit | 42 | 43 | 19 | 24 | 99 | 115 |
| Cleveland | 33 | 33 | 21 | 26 | 96 | 111 |
| Washington | 33 | 33 | 21 | 26 | 96 | 111 |
| NY Giants | 31 | 31 | 23 | 26 | 100 | 109 |
| Jacksonville | 22 | 23 | 23 | 25 | 91 | 98 |
—Ian Allan