The Seahawks are bringing in Sebastian Janikowski, but I don’t know that he’ll be a big upgrade over Blair Walsh. He’s 40, and the Raiders didn’t want to bring him back.
Janikowski has never been quite reliable enough on field goals. He always tends to miss a few more field goals than the surgeons like Justin Tucker, Phil Dawson and Robbie Gould. Kicking is like golf, and Janikowski isn’t the guy you want stepping up to hit the key 6-foot putt on the last hole.
Janikowski is regarded as one of the best long-ball kickers in league history, but that’s not really the case. He’s made a lot of kicks over 50 yards in his career, but his accuracy from that range has never been special.
Over the last five years, for example, 33 kickers have attempted at least 10 field goals from 50-plus yards. Only three have been less accurate than Janikowski. The Seahawks also have signed Jason Myers (the former Jaguar) and he’s been slightly more accurate than Janikowski.
With the Seahawks seemingly in decline, I wouldn’t even be considering Janikowski until about 20 other kickers were selected.
50-YARD FIELD GOALS (last 5 years) | |||
---|---|---|---|
Player | FG | FGA | Pct |
Stephen Hauschka | 19 | 23 | .826 |
Stephen Gostkowski | 16 | 20 | .800 |
Josh Brown | 8 | 10 | .800 |
Adam Vinatieri | 23 | 29 | .793 |
Matt Prater | 28 | 36 | .778 |
Robbie Gould | 14 | 18 | .778 |
Matt Bryant | 24 | 32 | .750 |
Phil Dawson | 18 | 25 | .720 |
Dan Bailey | 22 | 31 | .710 |
Justin Tucker | 29 | 43 | .674 |
Dan Carpenter | 14 | 21 | .667 |
Nick Folk | 11 | 17 | .647 |
Josh Scobee | 7 | 11 | .636 |
Mason Crosby | 15 | 24 | .625 |
Kai Forbath | 10 | 16 | .625 |
Graham Gano | 12 | 20 | .600 |
Josh Lambo | 6 | 10 | .600 |
Greg Zuerlein | 17 | 29 | .586 |
Wil Lutz | 7 | 12 | .583 |
Patrick Murray | 7 | 12 | .583 |
Nick Novak | 11 | 19 | .579 |
Blair Walsh | 14 | 25 | .560 |
Connor Barth | 6 | 11 | .545 |
Randy Bullock | 6 | 11 | .545 |
Caleb Sturgis | 13 | 24 | .542 |
Cairo Santos | 7 | 13 | .538 |
Chandler Catanzaro | 7 | 13 | .538 |
Jason Myers | 10 | 19 | .526 |
Brandon McManus | 11 | 21 | .524 |
Sebastian Janikowski | 13 | 25 | .520 |
Ryan Succop | 9 | 19 | .474 |
Mike Nugent | 6 | 14 | .429 |
Dustin Hopkins | 5 | 13 | .385 |
—Ian Allan