Wesley Wells

smokey_wasp

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Ok I went back to the 2nd post on this topic.

It says he got beat in practice, I saw that.it pertained to one game/week not a season.

I guess I suck at talking clearly. I wanted to know how anyone, regardless of sport, pedigree, talent, experience or lack of anything talented losses their starting job in which they may or may not be completely lucky after the fact they had never missed in a game - lose that starting job without trying one kick in an official game, after the season they were perfect in.

I know players lose their jobs for various reasons. Injuries or actual better talent supplanting them but I’ve never seen a player lose their job in kicking field goals or extra points perfectly without missing at least 2 or 3 in a real game. I guess it happens, I wanted to know why.

Since some seem perplexed by the question I’m asking, I’m assuming you guys would have no questions if we sat Mason, Because he had a bad practice. If you are perfect on the field of play I think most of us would naturally wonder why you are replaced by a sub .500 kicker the next year before you stepped on the field in a real game.

That all I’m asking. It’s not a hard question, I think repeating a post that he had a bad practice proves the question, So that’s enough to lose your job when your in game record is perfect ?

I guess some would be equally understanding if Nolan Ryan sat because he gave up a home fun in warm ups or Wayne Gretsky sat because he had a bad practice, Jordan missed a dunk in pre game ?

Repeating the bad practice post only enhances my question, ok he had a bad practice, everyone has a bad practice a time or two, so what ? Did he miss 3 FGs in a game ?

He has had one kick in 9 games ! After not missing at all the previous year. As King is 50% on his game kicks.

I asked for an answer not a guess. Sure we can surmise he had bad practice kicks, that’s not enough for an answer though. I was looking for someone who may actually know the deal. A real answer, the actual facts. Have he and Collins spoken and determined something else is driving this ? Is school and practice to much ? Did he fracture his foot skiing and lost his mechanics or has he lost a loved one ( maybe a girlfriend ) and his head isn’t in the game ? something more tangible than our perfect kicker missed in practice so he hasn’t gotten a try in 9 games.

If it’s the ATL thing ok well then that’s another conversation. If that’s the deal, who kicks best in practice from week to week can cause problems when you only have 2 kickers, one misses in the game and one misses in practice, who do you play ? So far it’s been the one who misses in the game - the other hasn’t had but one try.

It’s just a question, if nobody knows details that’s fine but there are a lot of answers to other questions on this board. I thought someone may have actual facts behind this issue, apparently not.

I’ll wonder off aimlessly mumbling to myself now, thanks.

You are comparing Wells to Nolan Ryan, Jordan and Gretzky? He had 9 attempts, mostly short ones. CPJ didnt even have full confidence in him until late in the season last year. If you honestly think a professional coaching staff is incapable of evaluating a kicker's mechanics, range and accuracy in practice, I am not sure any explanation would satisfy you.

I would imagine if Nolan Ryan lost 20 mph off his fastball, he probably wouldnt start, yes. Coaches wouldnt need to put him in a game to embarrass himself.

Whether it is an injury or he has just lost it, no one knows and Collins isnt going to violate the kids privacy and put him on blast to satisfy your curiosity.
 
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Technut1990

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Don’t overlook the fact that his only collegiate holder has moved on as well...


Look a civil answer to a question ! And one that makes sense. Wonder if the juveniles can see this as an example of chat in a chat room ?

No insult to you Dottie, your answer has logic in it.
 

GTMom

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Don’t overlook the fact that his only collegiate holder has moved on as well...

That occurred to me as well. I’m not a kicker (although my son was a darn good one in high school and was all set to go in as a walk-on at Tech in 2009 but he decided against it after rupturing his spleen in his last playoff game of senior year) BUT I would guess that the holder has a lot to do with whether the kicker is successful or not.
 

Deleted member 2897

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You are comparing Wells to Nolan Ryan, Jordan and Gretzky? He had 9 attempts, mostly short ones. CPJ didnt even have full confidence in him until late in the season last year. If you honestly think a professional coaching staff is incapable of evaluating a kicker's mechanics, range and accuracy in practice, I am not sure any explanation would satisfy you.

I would imagine if Nolan Ryan lost 20 mph off his fastball, he probably wouldnt start, yes. Coaches wouldnt need to put him in a game to embarrass himself.

Whether it is an injury or he has just lost it, no one knows and Collins isnt going to violate the kids privacy and put him on blast to satisfy your curiosity.

Well, point made, but losing 20mph off your fastball isn’t really the same as having accuracy issues. It’s more akin to a pitcher who just can’t throw strikes. When I watched Wells lineup for the kick, I must say his stance and orientation to the ball seemed unusually tight. Almost nobody approaches the ball that straight on. He looked like a golfer on the tee whose aim was way out of bounds, then they hit it where they aimed and are shocked.
 

danny daniel

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Well, point made, but losing 20mph off your fastball isn’t really the same as having accuracy issues. It’s more akin to a pitcher who just can’t throw strikes. When I watched Wells lineup for the kick, I must say his stance and orientation to the ball seemed unusually tight. Almost nobody approaches the ball that straight on. He looked like a golfer on the tee whose aim was way out of bounds, then they hit it where they aimed and are shocked.

I noticed that also from Wells but I saw another kicker this past Saturday from a prominent team align the same way. That seems to limit your approach arc but I am no expert on place kicks. It is definitely different from the demo recently given by Butker.
 

iceeater1969

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That occurred to me as well. I’m not a kicker (although my son was a darn good one in high school and was all set to go in as a walk-on at Tech in 2009 but he decided against it after rupturing his spleen in his last playoff game of senior year) BUT I would guess that the holder has a lot to do with whether the kicker is successful or not.
I posted same point about Brad.
This year who has been the holder ? I know it was the punter this week, but I thought it was the one if the qb s earlier
 
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Well, point made, but losing 20mph off your fastball isn’t really the same as having accuracy issues. It’s more akin to a pitcher who just can’t throw strikes. When I watched Wells lineup for the kick, I must say his stance and orientation to the ball seemed unusually tight. Almost nobody approaches the ball that straight on. He looked like a golfer on the tee whose aim was way out of bounds, then they hit it where they aimed and are shocked.
He looked somehow different on that kick to me too.
 

Technut1990

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You are comparing Wells to Nolan Ryan, Jordan and Gretzky? He had 9 attempts, mostly short ones. CPJ didnt even have full confidence in him until late in the season last year. If you honestly think a professional coaching staff is incapable of evaluating a kicke, r's mechanics, range and accuracy in practice, I am not sure any explanation would satisfy you.

I would imagine if Nolan Ryan lost 20 mph off his fastball, he probably wouldnt start, yes. Coaches wouldnt need to put him in a game to embarrass himself.

Whether it is an injury or he has just lost it, no one knows and Collins isnt going to violate the kids privacy and put him on blast to satisfy your curiosity.

Come on Smokey, I'm comparing sports logic across the board. I'm saying starters don't lose their jobs until they are given the chance to fail in the actual games. I think we all know, or should know, im not comparing actual talent to talent.
 

Lee

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Come on Smokey, I'm comparing sports logic across the board. I'm saying starters don't lose their jobs until they are given the chance to fail in the actual games. I think we all know, or should know, im not comparing actual talent to talent.

I can respond to the Nolan Ryan part. The example of losing his job because he gave up a homerun is not realistic. What is more realistic would be if he showed up to spring training and could not throw strikes or get out of an inning in camp. He would definitely lose his starting job At that point because the manager would not feel comfortable putting him in a game. Now this isn’t to say he wouldn’t get it back when he was ready. What would happen in this situation is that he would be kept in extended spring training to work out whatever is going on. Once he was able to command his pitches again, he would then be sent to A/AA/AAA to work his pitch count up before being brought back up to join the big league club. Or if he never figured it out, he could become an Allstar hitter instead (see Rick Ankiel).

Most here have insinuated that Wells lost the job because of his performance in practice. For me this doesn’t mean that King slightly outperformed him. It means that he showed serious signs of regression to the point that the staff didn’t trust him to make kicks when it counted. This in the same way as the above example doesn’t preclude him from getting the job back, but he does have to prove he deserves it.

Hope that extension of your analogy is helpful in at least explaining what I (and I believe most others) believe happened with Wells coming into the year.

This could prove not to be the case and the coaches just thought King was better than Wells based on them competing. I feel the other scenario is more likely.
 

smokey_wasp

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Come on Smokey, I'm comparing sports logic across the board. I'm saying starters don't lose their jobs until they are given the chance to fail in the actual games. I think we all know, or should know, im not comparing actual talent to talent.

See Lee's response above. Of course starters can lose their job if it becomes clear to the coaching staff that they aren't capable of performing based on practice or camp. I don't find this to be a foreign or unusual concept in any way. Wells has failed 3 times in games, anyway (shanked kickoff, shanked XP, shanked FG). We have seen firsthand reports of him being way off in pregames. It's obvious that he just hasn't been the same this year. Whether it's physical or mental is between him and the coaches and we may never know.

I appreciate your more civil response this go around, but I don't see much value in keeping this going.
 

bobongo

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Well, point made, but losing 20mph off your fastball isn’t really the same as having accuracy issues. It’s more akin to a pitcher who just can’t throw strikes. When I watched Wells lineup for the kick, I must say his stance and orientation to the ball seemed unusually tight. Almost nobody approaches the ball that straight on. He looked like a golfer on the tee whose aim was way out of bounds, then they hit it where they aimed and are shocked.

I also was surprised at the almost straight on approach. I thought he was going to hook it left, but it just missed the right upright. He seemed to me to be somewhat unsure of himself up there.
 
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