http://www.yardbarker.com/content/player/3722 Recent articles about Mike Vanderjagt en-us The Vikings and Colts meet today for the first time since 2004, when they squared off on a Monday night in November in Indy.  It may shock you to learn that Peyton Manning didn't pass for over 300 yards that game - he only managed 268…with four touchdowns.  The Colts jumped out to a 14-0 lead in Sun, 14 Sep 2008 10:09:03 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/332760 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/332760 On the "Waddle and Silvy Show" on ESPN Radio in Chicago, Coach Tony Dungy had a few comments (which you can hear here) that can make a Colts fan day. "Marvin's doing great and should be ready to go when training camp opens," said coach Dungy, "He was running pretty well at our offseason workouts and really smiling and feeling good I think for the first time in a while." I was really surprised to here this about Marvin.  Of course, the Colts were the ones who said he would play in the Tennessee Titans game in Week 17, so you never know.  However, most people, like me, did think that Marvin would miss all of training camp and the preseason.  Marvin needs training camp and the preseason to get back into playing form.  This is great news. But wait!  There's more. "Peyton's [knee surgery] was really a minor procedure.  We kind of toyed with the idea of trying to make it through the whole season, and I think he probably could have.  But timing is going to be good for us.  Jim Sorgi will get a lot of work at the first part of training camp, and then I think Peyton will be ready by midway through then we will roll like we always have." Dungy goes onto say that even if Peyton would miss 5 weeks, he would still have 3 weeks of preseason to get ready.  The dried-out Marvin shooting incident was brought up, and Dungy reiterated that Marvin is not a suspect, and the Philly police has confirmed that with the organization. If Peyton and Marvin can get even one preseason game in, it should be enough to blow by the Bears in Week 1 and be able to take care of the Vikings and Jags before the bye week.  Dungy makes all of the "experts" who said that Peyton could miss the first week look like the idiots they are. They didn't understand that 8 (the weeks left until the season starts) minus 6 (the maximum number of weeks Peyton would miss) equals 2, which is a positive number.  That means that he would not miss the first game.  Morons. This coupled with the news that Freeney will definitely be 100% by Week 1, and the injury problems that were looming are all but gone.  Since the injuries are the only thing that the "experts" have said as a negative for the Colts, I think this report should make us the favorites in the AFC.  Of course Mike Florio and some of the idiots at ESPN will manipulate Dungy's comments to make it seem like he said Peyton lost his left leg and Marvin was guilty of the shooting.  Ah well.  They can be surprised when the season comes. IN OTHER NEWS: Mike Vanderjagt says he is enjoying playing in the CFL.  He is 6 for 9 on field goal attempts, so he hasn't been having the best of luck.  Hopefully he can turn this around so he can be an NFL team's liquored-up idiot kicker again. Not every seat at Lucas Oil Stadium is perfect. The Colts have the most two-a-day practices in the AFC South.  Hopefully that will lead to better conditioning so we don't lose so many players. Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:19:52 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/292422 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/292422 On the "Waddle and Silvy Show" on ESPN Radio in Chicago, Coach Tony Dungy had a few comments (which you can hear here) that can make a Colts fan day. "Marvin's doing great and should be ready to go when training camp opens," said coach Dungy, "He was running pretty well at our offseason workouts and really smiling and feeling good I think for the first time in a while." I was really surprised to here this about Marvin.  Of course, the Colts were the ones who said he would play in the Tennessee Titans game in Week 17, so you never know.  However, most people, like me, did think that Marvin would miss all of training camp and the preseason.  Marvin needs training camp and the preseason to get back into playing form.  This is great news. But wait!  There's more. "Peyton's [knee surgery] was really a minor procedure.  We kind of toyed with the idea of trying to make it through the whole season, and I think he probably could have.  But timing is going to be good for us.  Jim Sorgi will get a lot of work at the first part of training camp, and then I think Peyton will be ready by midway through then we will roll like we always have." Dungy goes onto say that even if Peyton would miss 5 weeks, he would still have 3 weeks of preseason to get ready.  The dried-out Marvin shooting incident was brought up, and Dungy reiterated that Marvin is not a suspect, and the Philly police has confirmed that with the organization. If Peyton and Marvin can get even one preseason game in, it should be enough to blow by the Bears in Week 1 and be able to take care of the Vikings and Jags before the bye week.  Dungy makes all of the "experts" who said that Peyton could miss the first week look like the idiots they are. They didn't understand that 8 (the weeks left until the season starts) minus 6 (the maximum number of weeks Peyton would miss) equals 2, which is a positive number.  That means that he would not miss the first game.  Morons. This coupled with the news that Freeney will definitely be 100% by Week 1, and the injury problems that were looming are all but gone.  Since the injuries are the only thing that the "experts" have said as a negative for the Colts, I think this report should make us the favorites in the AFC.  Of course Mike Florio and some of the idiots at ESPN will manipulate Dungy's comments to make it seem like he said Peyton lost his left leg and Marvin was guilty of the shooting.  Ah well.  They can be surprised when the season comes. IN OTHER NEWS: Mike Vanderjagt says he is enjoying playing in the CFL.  He is 6 for 9 on field goal attempts, so he hasn't been having the best of luck.  Hopefully he can turn this around so he can be an NFL team's liquored-up idiot kicker again. Not every seat at Lucas Oil Stadium is perfect. The Colts have the most two-a-day practices in the AFC South.  Hopefully that will lead to better conditioning so we don't lose so many players. Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:19:52 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/292422 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/292422 2007 Summary: The Saints traded a 4th round pick for Olindo Mare in 2007, releasing the aging John Carney. They were hoping that Mare's strong leg would prevent the 4th down decisions around 25 or 30 yard line that the Saints had to deal with in 2006. Unfortunately Mare had a bad year. First with missed field goals while healthy and then missing field goals while hurt. The Saints eventually picked up Martin Gramatica to replace Mare and released Mare. 2008 Offseason: The Saints resigned Martin Gramatica and drafted Taylor Mehlhaff in the 6th round of the NFL draft. Player summary: Martin Gramatica has been in the league for 9 years, even going to the Pro-Bowl, but started having accuracy problems in field goals longer than 40 yards around 2003. The Bucs stuck with Gramatica until midway through the 2004 season. After being cut he was picked up by the Indianapolis Colts exclusively for kickoffs later that year. Gramatica claims that he had been suffering from a torn abdomen muscle that was surgically repaired between the 2004 and 2005 offseason, but did play with any team during the 2005 season. At the start of the 2006 season Gramatica was signed by the New England Patriots and competed with then rookie Stephen Gostkowski, but lost and was cut. Eventually he ended up with the Dallas Cowboys after Bill Parcells had released an inconsistent Mike Vanderjagt. Gramatica may well be fully healed and back to his once Pro-Bowl form, but only time will tell. Taylor Mehlhaf is a big leg rookie out of the University of Wisconson. Mehlhaff played quarterback in high school and is considered a solid all around football player, despite being undersized for most any position besides a kicker at 5-10 and 184 lbs. Mehlhaff had a very high touch back ratio in 2007 with 42 of 76 kick offs resulting in touch backs. He has kicked in poor weather conditions and is able to hit field goals from 50+ yards out. Mehlhaff had some accuracy issues early in his college career hitting only 70% of his field goals as a freshman, but improved every year and in 2007 made 21 of 25 (84%) with a long of 51 yards. Some have said that he had a slow approach on college game film prompting Mehlhaff to spend considerable time trying to improve that for scouts in the offseason. Only time will tell if Mehlhaff has the mettle to be an NFL reliable kicker. Mueller and Payton have said that it is possible that the Saints could carry two kickers on the roster, as they did for the 2006 season. If Mehlhaff wins the job hands down, look for the Saints to keep only one, but if Mehlhaff shows promise, but doesn't win the job outright, the Saints may keep both with the hopes of developing Mehlhaff during the season. Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:28:27 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/289936 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/289936 Not even crossing the border can do the idiot kicker good.  In his first game with the Toronto Argonauts, Vandershank missed his first 3 field goals.  They were from 32, 39, and 51 yards out.  He ended up with making two in a row from 44 and 49.  He also had 7 punts for an average of 48.1 yards with one going 60 yards.  Maybe he could make it back in the NFL by way of punting, so he could be our "liquored-up idiot punter".  On one of his missed field goals, he scored a "single".  I didn't know what in God's name a single was, so I went to the omniscient source of knowledge: Wikipedia.  Here's the definition: "A single (single point, rouge or UNO), in Canadian football, is awarded when the ball is kicked into the end zone by any legal means, other than a successful field goal, and the receiving team does not return, or kick, the ball out of its end zone. It is also a single if the kick travels through the end zone or goes out of bounds in the end zone without being touched, except on a kickoff. After conceding a single, the receiving team is awarded possession of the ball at the 35-yard line." So crappy kicking is rewarded up there.  I guess kneeling the ball isn't common in the CFL.  That also makes sense when I saw "Missed Field Goal Returns" as a category in the stats sheet. The Argonauts did end up winning the game by two, so Vanderjagt didn't blow this game.  Somethings do change. Sun, 29 Jun 2008 14:01:16 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/283851 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/283851 I thought it was a low point for Mike Vanderjagt when he was beat out in a tryout by a minor league kicker. Yeah, a kicker from the arenafootball2 league — the Arena minor league — was better than Vanderjagt. This is the same guy who was a Pro Bowler and like hitting [...] Sun, 01 Jun 2008 06:36:23 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/272967 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/272967 I thought it was a low point for Mike Vanderjagt when he was beat out in a tryout by a minor league kicker. Yeah, a kicker from the arenafootball2 league — the Arena minor league — was better than Vanderjagt. This is the same guy who was a Pro Bowler and like hitting [...] Sun, 01 Jun 2008 06:36:23 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/272967 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/272967 Chicago Bears kicker Robbie Gould has signed a five year contract worth $15.5 million to extend his contract through 2013. The deal also includes a $4.25 million signing bonus and makes him the highest paid kicker in NFL history. It trumps the $12 million paid to Indianapolis Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri and the $14.2 million paid to St. Louis Rams kicker Josh Brown. Gould signed with the team as an undrafted free agent out of Penn State in 2005 and became a fan favorite for his mixture of professionalism and personality. He frequently makes himself available to media and fans and has stayed humble through his popularity. He is mindful of his days getting cut by the New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens and keeps a positive attitude. He was voted to the Pro Bowl in 2006 and has made 84 of 99 field goals for his career, an 85% success rate. His most notable kick came in the playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks at Soldier Field in overtime that led the Bears to the NFC Championship Game. Gould has the fourth highest career field goal percentage in NFL history behind kickers Nate Keading, Mike Vanderjagt, and Shayne Graham. In 2006, Gould scored 143 points, ranking him 23rd for most points scored in a single season in NFL history. His 143 points also ranked him 2nd only behind LaDainian Tomlinson's 186 points for most points scored in the NFL that season. Last season, his 126 points was good enough to rank him 8th in the NFL in points scored. In 2006, Gould's 32 successful field goals ranked him in a tie for 1st with Jeff Wilkins for most field goals made that season. In 2007, his 31 successful field goals ranked him in a three way tie for 2nd for most field goals made with Mason Crosby and Shayne Graham, and trailing Rob Bironas. Those are big numbers for a kid that was working as construction worker in Pennsylvania three years ago before signing with the Bears. Please visit: http://beargoggleson.com Tue, 13 May 2008 12:03:53 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/266467 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/266467 Few things are worst than watching your kicker shank one right when all you need is 2 measly points to get the W that week. However, one of the few things that is worst is watching your kicker stink it up all year long. The following kickers have the dubious distinction of being "the Ugly" from 2007. If you didn't own them, then sit back and enjoy the read. If you did, sorry to make you relive the pain. The Bruno Boys present "The Ugly" Kickers. ——————————————————— Adam Vinatieri (Indianapolis Colts) - 112 fantasy points is really nothing to be ashamed of, but Vinatieri was cursed by expectations. A Super Bowl hero playing for the previous year's Super Bowl Champion is going to be dogged by lofty projections, and the Bruno Boys ranking of Vinatieri as the number two kicker in fantasy football at the beginning of 2007 demonstrates that perfectly. Vinatieri though did not help his own cause, missing 6 Field Goals and 2 Extra Points on the year. The scariest thing for fantasy owners is that Vinatieri's long was just 39 yards. With long kicks giving those oh so precious bonus points, that just won't cut it. To read the rest of the article click on link below: Sun, 24 Feb 2008 13:29:43 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/164515 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/164515 Waaaay back in June, I sat down and made some predictions in an article called Sleepers & Busters: 2007 Edition. One of my favorite comments I received on this article was glaringly posted on the front page of my site. It simply read: "I disagree with just about everything in this article. Pull your head out of your ass". Awesome. Now that we're smack in the middle of the season, we can get a pretty good early idea how I did. The whole point of the article was to see what players were being overvalued and undervalued. So, I will gauge correct/incorrect on fantasy points accumulated in a standard scoring league. Now, let's take a look and see if I can stop sniffing my prostate yet. Read more at ArmchairAssociation.com... Tue, 30 Oct 2007 17:38:22 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/33613 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/33613 Video of Houston Texas kicker Kris Brown using sign language to talk with a fan. <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OQYEQ1f-ZKA"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OQYEQ1f-ZKA" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> Tue, 25 Sep 2007 14:30:34 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/28463 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/28463 With such low profile kickers as Dave Rayner being brought in for visits by select NFL Clubs and kickers such as Olindo Mare, Jay Feely, Lawrence Tynes changing clubs this season it made me ponder why wouldn't a team take a flier on still to this day the most accurate kicker in league history so I decided to weigh the pros and cons of signing Vander Smack. Pros: - Would Most likely sign for a veteran minimum to prove he still has what it takes - The most accurate kicker in NFL history Cons: - Perhaps the long lost white brother of Terrell Owens when you start to compare styles of trash talk. - Perhaps the worse clutch kicker in the history of the league as those of you who saw the Pittsburgh / Indy playoff game can atestify to. One can only imagine if Vinateri had signed with Indy one season earlier, we could very well be talking about them today as going into tonight with the chance to begin their quest for 3-Peat. After reviewing the cons I think it's safe to say that while yes the idea of Vanderjagt returning to form could help probably 85% of the teams in the league, the added baggage from a kicker's standpoint is most likely to leave Vanderjagt without a team for the rest of his playing days. Thu, 06 Sep 2007 20:26:36 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/26184 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/26184 Here's the setup: "The other day I was chatting with a friend and co-worker who is part-time sportswriter about the current NFL free agency madness when Adam "Pacman" Jones name popped into our conversation. We made some joke or biting reference about his current troubles when one of us spit out the name Lawrence Phillips--the poster boy for troubled NFL stars. That got us to thinking, could we put together an entire team of troubled NFL players at each position? As it turns out, it was disturbingly easy." This actually wouldn't be such a bad team. Someone tell Al Davis that this exercise was just for fun. Sun, 18 Mar 2007 18:59:26 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/11270 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/11270 A poorly thought out list of sports figures who might go Kramer on someone in the near future. Fri, 01 Dec 2006 19:28:17 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/6017 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/6017 Terrell Owens expressed that he believed the Cowboys made a mistake in releasing veteran kicker Mike Vanderjagt. Vanderjagt, while a distraction at times, has been one of the most productive kickers in recent years. But teams may shy away from approaching him because of one thing: his mouth. In Indianapolis, Vanderjagt has been famous for making stupid comments, but his play was able to silence critics to an extent. This season, with his numbers down, theres no saving grace for the "idiot kicker." Fri, 01 Dec 2006 02:06:27 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/5970 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/5970