With the Tennessee Titans established as perennial contenders, is it time to take a chance on a low-value position late in the 2022 NFL Draft?
In the NFL, the keys to success are a franchise quarterback, multiple talented receivers, a workable offensive line, athletic edge rushers, and a lockdown cornerback. Year in and year out, these are some of the most coveted positions in the NFL draft, but one position continually has been snubbed over the decades…kicker.
Since 2000, only 47 kickers have been drafted, and also since 2000, no kicker has been selected in the first round since Sebastian Janikowski at 17. The position isn’t the most glamorous nor the biggest jersey seller, but it is critically important.
Randy Bullock was put in place to win or tie the game on 4 different occasions and made 2 of them on the road at Seattle and Indianapolis. Bullock finished the season going 26 out of 32 on field-goal attempts and 42 out of 45 extra points.
Bullock helped stabilize an already messy situation as the kicker for Tennessee, and he was solid when the Titans needed someone solid at the position. However, with an entire offseason to look at the position and evaluate potential upgrades, is “solid” enough for Bullock to keep his job without competition?
Should the Tennessee Titans draft a kicker?
Cameron Dicker from Texas is someone that the Tennessee Titans could consider late on Day 3 of the 2022 NFL Draft.
In his 4 years at Texas, he was the kicker and punter for the Longhorns and his longest field goal was a 50-yarder at West Virginia. Not only was he consistently racking up extra points (49 of 50), but he was also a clutch kicker with three game-winners.
The truth is that of all the kickers in this draft, I can easily see him as this year’s Evan McPherson. And unfortunately for Titans fans, that’s a name that still stings just thinking about the nail in the coffin field goal not 3 months ago.
McPherson was arguably one of the best kickers in the 2021 draft last year and the Bengals took the gamble and grabbed him in the 5th round. The surprising thing is, that most draft services and draft analysts didn’t think he was a transcendent talent, and (in the nicest way) there was nothing exceptional about him.
The major lesson here is Tennessee should not hold back in any area that could help improve them, even if they have a guy that is already there and is capable of doing the job. If “Dicker the Kicker” can be that difference, then using one of their later draft picks is a huge gamble worth taking.