Thread: Vikings work out 4 punters today ...

I don't see Payton throwing Martin Gramatica under the bus publically (although they probably will get a new FG kicker), It just a matter of good taste to keep it in house.

I dont care who is back there...there is no reason why we should not be able to tackle a return man and prevent 2 TDs (almost 3).
I understand the motive for punting out of bounds, and that we should have a guy back there who can do that.
But there is no excuse for giving up nearly 3 TDs on punt returns.
That is just bad special teams coverage, the punts were not all that bad either.
But yes, Kluwe should be punting it out of bounds if he is told to.
Those tackles still need to be made though first and foremost.

Also note that at many points during the season and season's past Kluwe has been one of this team's MVPs.

The Vikings rank last in the NFL in punt coverage and 30th in kickoff coverage. I suppose this is Kluwe's fault, too.

"COJOMAY" wrote:

The Vikings rank last in the NFL in punt coverage and 30th in kickoff coverage. I suppose this is Kluwe's fault, too.

You are right. Kluwe is actually doing an AWESOME job.
Why on earth would we need a punter who can, you know, punt the ball?

Just because we are looking at other options doesn't mean that Kluwe is getting all the blame.
But he deserves SOME of the blame, and since there are no other punters on the roster, we have to bring some in to evaluate them and see if someone can do better.
I am guessing there are shake ups on the rest of the ST unit too, but we have the bodies to move them around in practice.

"oaklandzoo24" wrote:

I dont care who is back there...there is no reason why we should not be able to tackle a return man and prevent 2 TDs (almost 3).
I understand the motive for punting out of bounds, and that we should have a guy back there who can do that.
But there is no excuse for giving up nearly 3 TDs on punt returns.
That is just bad special teams coverage, the punts were not all that bad either.
But yes, Kluwe should be punting it out of bounds if he is told to.
Those tackles still need to be made though first and foremost.

Correct.
And anyone who doesn't think that this is a sore spot in practice this week is fooling themselves.
But we NEED someone who can kick the freaking ball out of bounds when he needs to.
The last two punts were not even close.
They were ten yards IN bounds.


They are working to address the shitty return coverage.
In the meantime maybe we can get a punter who can put the ball remotely close to where it needs to be.

"COJOMAY" wrote:

I don't see Payton throwing Martin Gramatica under the bus publically (although they probably will get a new FG kicker), It just a matter of good taste to keep it in house.

They did put him on IR today and signed a guy
from Madison, South Dakota.

"COJOMAY" wrote:

I don't see Payton throwing Martin Gramatica under the bus publically (although they probably will get a new FG kicker), It just a matter of good taste to keep it in house.

I can agree that it should have been done in house.
But that doesn't take away from the fact that Kluwe is not getting the job done.
People here are acting like we are benching AD.
We aren't.
We are looking at replacing a punter who can't get the job done.

You got to be kidding me! I seriously thought this was a joke.

Kluwe is a good punter... no I take that back. He's a great punter!

"COJOMAY" wrote:

You know, the more I read about this, the more I hate Childress. Blaming one guy when 10 others failed to do their job. I'm sure Kluwe tried to do his job. But the ball doesn't always bounce the way you want it to. Childress is taking out his frustrations of being a lousy coach on his players and that's just not right.

I am starting to agree with you. Not because I think Childress is trying to throw anyone under the bus, but because by this point in the season players should have been evaluated. He's watched Klue punt for a couple of years now and if he didn't like what he saw he should have made a move earlier, before the games started. Same with Tjack, all off season he says Tjacks the guy and then 2 games into the season he changes his mind? WTF?

"oaklandzoo24" wrote:

Why do we give 2 poohies about adding punter...were just going to let the return man break all our ankles and take one back to the house anyway.
I say put chilly back there and let him kick the ball, we should invest our money elsewhere.

hahahahaahahahaha