FanPost

Cut Buehler! Are you insane?

Listen, I'll come right out and admit I am a David Buehler apologist. I am enamored with his leg strength, his athleticism, and his attitude. Buehler isn't fragile in mind or body. He has his flaws, but I think his potential needs to continue to be explored.

Before I continue the love fest, let's Tarantino this thing:

Okay, it is April 2009, the 'Boys draft K. David Buehler. Are you kidding me? We have Nick Folk (I loved me some Folk; especially after the Buffalo win.) I'm pretty upset. Our draft is full of 11 nobodies and an unnecessary kicker. Come on, two kickers? Seriously? I was not happy, but what could I do?

Now just so everyone knows, I do not believe we should have cut Folk; he should have went to IR. Regardless, I fell in love with Buehler that first game. Watching all those touchbacks. Looking at a kicker, the size of a LB, running to the ball and then through the kick and down the field to make a tackle. Even then I thought, "hell, he should get a shot at the FG job with that leg."

Fast forward a little bit: Folk is a Jet and Buehler is missing 25% of his kicks. UGH. Here's where the real point of this post comes, everyone was calling for his head; they still are. Doesn't that sound familiar? To me it does. Everybody was calling for Folks head too, and Billy Cundiff before that. Wouldn't you like to have stayed the course back then? I know I would have. We have, for too long, been impatient with kickers; we cut them only to see them thrive for years somewhere else. You always hear "kickers are a dime a dozen" and they are, the mediocre ones at least. A mediocre kicker is precisely what we get when we can't stick through great kickers' slumps.

In my opinion, Buehler has the most potential of any kicker we have seen. Ever. Watching Janikowski tie the FG record last week made me want to type my thoughts out on BTB for the first time. We have a kicker that, if given the time, could not only get in that 3-way that is the 63 yd FG record, but break it. A 75% kicker really isn't that bad, and an 80% is pretty decent. With a little more work, I have no doubt Buehler could become 80%+.

Everyone needs to just calm down. Don't get annoyed by the "wasted" roster spot and let this try to work itself out. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results; so don't be insane. Don't call for Buehler's head. Don't get down on him...not just yet. Stick it out and remember this:

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Our kicker not only kicks it deep, he reminds returners they need to take a knee.

Another user-created commentary provided by a BTB reader.