No Job Yet For Succop … Saturday Cup O’Chiefs

From River Falls, Wisconsin

The advice for Ryan Succop is very simple:

Keeping on renting; don’t buy anything yet.

When Connor Barth was released earlier this week, it left Succop (left) as the only kicker on the Chiefs roster as they came north to start training camp. It appeared the last player taken in the 2009 NFL Draft had a roster spot for the opener.

But on Friday as the Chiefs went through their first full day here in the land of beer and cheese, Todd Haley made it plain that the decision to waive Barth had less to do with Succop winning the job and more to do with the roster crunch that comes with being allowed to carry just 80 players for training camp.

“The competition has definitely not been eliminated,” Haley said. “I can pull out a list of veteran kickers that are probably on a field right now staying ready. With the roster number, it’s definitely a crunch to try to figure out what you want to do and who you can afford to lose.

“It was a move we felt we had to make right now … but even Connor isn’t out of the running.”

There was no celebration coming from Succop when he heard the news from Haley and special teams coach Steve Hoffman that the only other kicker on the roster was sent home.

“I haven’t won anything yet,” Succop said. “I don’t view it as a vote of confidence because right now, I’ve not done anything.

“What it does is it provides me the opportunity to get all the kicks in camp and that’s going to help me show what I can do.”

Haley said the Chiefs drafted Succop out of South Carolina for a reason, and that was the strength of his leg, not only for long field goals, but kickoffs. In four seasons kicking off for the Gamecocks, he had 94 touchbacks out of his 253 kickoffs, or 37 percent. Last year with Barth and Nick Novak, the Chiefs total of touchbacks ranked among the fewest in the league.

“I know what they want and my job is to give it to them consistently,” said Succop. “That will start with the first time we kick and will be judged every day that I’m here.”

There have been 25 kickers drafted in the NFL in this decade, 10 of those in the last five seasons. The highest choice used in that time was the Jets selection of Mike Nugent with a second-round choice in the 2005 NFL Draft. All the other kickers were fourth round picks or lower.

Here’s how those last 10 drafted kickers did in their rookie seasons:

Nugent, Gostkowski, Crosby and Folk all survived their rookie seasons and none kicked FGs at 80 percent or better. At this point in their careers, three of the four have pushed their averages over that 80 percent mark (Nugent 81.5 percent, Gostkowski 85.6 percent and Folk 86.8 pecent.) Only Crosby hasn’t made it, but he’s at 79.5 percent over two seasons.

So that’s four of the 10 who have made a place for themselves with the team that selected them. Two of the other six have never kicked in an NFL game and two more have one game of experience.

The last time the Chiefs went with a rookie kicker to start a season things didn’t work out so well when Justin Medlock was released after a single game: the ‘07 season opener in Houston.

REAL FOOTBALL FINALY BEGINS SATURDAY MORNING FOR CHIEFS

The University Center cafeteria will open at 6:30 a.m. for breakfast. An hour later, players will start getting taped and dressed. Finally around 8:30 they will begin to make their way onto the field for the first practice of this new era of Chiefs football.

Haley indicated that there will be a handful of players who will not participate in Saturday morning’s workout because they haven’t passed the team physical. Those failures could be for any number of reasons, whether they didn’t successfully complete the conditioning test, did not make their assigned number at the team weigh-in, or are nursing some sort of physical problem.

“We don’t have anybody that’s real far off and that’s what I feel good about,” Haley said. “None of these are long term deals and we should have everybody going pretty soon.”

Haley wouldn’t name names but there are several candidates and those would be the players that were rehabbing during the off-season practice sessions: QB Brodie Croyle, RB Kolby Smith, DE Glenn Dorsey, and DT Ron Edwards. Others like OLB Turk McBride and CB Maurice Leggett are coming off shoulder injuries that required surgery and the Chiefs may just want to be cautious with the start of their seasons.

Veterans Brian Waters and Mike Vrabel may be part of that group as well because they missed so much by not attending the off-season program and may not yet be in the type of condition sought by Haley.

That’s a bunch of guessing after Croyle/Smith/Dorsey. The best thing for the Chiefs is that the war of attrition that comes with injuries in pro football has not yet started for them.

SIGNINGS & MOVEMENT AROUND THE LEAGUE

• BROWNS – released K Parker Douglass.
• BUCCANEERS – signed first-round draft choice QB Josh Freeman.
• CHARGERS – signed first-round draft choice OL Larry English.
• DOLPHINS – signed first-round draft choice Vontae Davis.
• JAGUARS – signed third-round draft choice DT Terrance Knighton; released QB Todd Boeckman.
• LIONS – signed first-round draft choice TE Brandon Pettigrew, third-round WR Derrick Williams and fourth-round DT Sammie Hill.
• PANTHERS – signed second-round draft choice CB Sherrod Martin.
• RAVENS – placed S Ed Reed on the PUP List.
• REDSKINS – signed first-round draft choice DE Brian Orakpo.
• SEAHAWKS – signed OT Corey Withrow (Rams).
• TEXANS – signed second-round draft choice DE/LB Connor Barwin.

SAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY …
Born on August 1, 1985 in Baton Rouge was DE Glenn Dorsey. The Chiefs first-round selection in the 2008 NFL Draft out of LSU played in all 16 games during his rookie season contributing 50 total tackles and one sack.

Born on August 1, 1950 in Rushford, Minnesota was QB Dean Carlson. He was drafted in the seventh-round of the 1972 NFL Draft out of Iowa State. Carlson played in one game with the Chiefs during the 1974 season, completing seven of 15 passes for 116 yards and one INT. It was the only game of his NFL career.