Just an opinion...

[Captain Obvious]

He's not Invincible and no Vince Papale, that's for sure. 

[WarHeel]

53 men on a roster. Only 11 men on the field at a given time. Jones has proven his worth time and time again on special teams. I have no problem with the signing barring he doesn’t see the field on defense. 

[top dawg]

I don't think that it's wise to take Special Teams play for granted. 

[Shotgun]

38 minutes ago, top dawg said:

I don't think that it's wise to take Special Teams play for granted. 

That's Riveras job.  

[pantherclaw]

The biggest problem, is injuries. They are a fact of life in the NFL. 

The more dependent your special teams is on guys that have other roles, is as their roles increase from injuries to others, it forces major turnover on special teams as a result.  Impossible to have any good consistency once that begins to happen. 

[raleigh-panther]

Ron does like his ‘Rudys ‘

Payton likes his Rudys too, the difference is hud can play other critical positions too

[thefuzz]

3 hours ago, Dex said:

No shame in admitting you were wrong. It's hard to remember things from a few months ago. Season ended poorly.

Where was I wrong?

The "yay" statement has more to do with our head coach and the reason that we were in the situation for a 63 yard field goal as time expired, and the fact that in the long run, losing that game gave us worse position in the upcoming draft.

 

[KillerKat]

1 hour ago, top dawg said:

I don't think that it's wise to take Special Teams play for granted. 

Does it really matter? At least for us? We've always kept these "special teams aces" on our roster yet our special teams keep on sucking. Or at least for just about every year under Rivera.

[MasterAwesome]

2 hours ago, Dex said:

I figured you would do be the courtesy of being specific. No worries.

Gano has missed 3 FGs in the last two years and he still can’t be bothered to look through that small of a sample size and indicate which ones he lost (hint: you can make a solid case for one game - against the Lions). Unless you want to attribute our loss against Seattle to his missed 52 yard FG and not our defense that got burned on about 47 3rd and longs and 4th and longs all game.

If you want to bring up his missed XPs as contributors to losses - here’s some friendly advice: just don’t...cause you’re gonna look stupid if you make me actually go back and cite each one of those games.

Edit: yes he also missed a gimme in the Saints playoff game last year too, but 4/5 for the game overall. I’d attribute our loss more to trotting out a bunch of 4th string WRs and a one-armed Funchess though.

[MasterAwesome]

55 minutes ago, stbugs said:

He lost the Detroit game. Due to a missed FG and a missed XP, Ron wasn’t willing to risk him kicking a game tying XP and he went for 2 with 1.5 left. Even if we got it, Detroit goes down the field for a FG to win. If Ganope makes his kicks, I believe we could have had a 7 or 8 point lead with the last attempt being an XP to go up 7 or 8. And yes, missing a FG in a 3 point loss matters. We sucked anyway, but he hurt.

Even in his pro-bowl season he still misses a chip shot FG and so instead of being able to win with a FG we need and TD and get stopped at their 20 (within range).

Also, why not look at the last 3 years seeing as that was his season before Hurney gave him a $17 deal instead of saving $14m with a rookie K. He lost the Denver game, both Tampa games (4 missed FGs in two games we lost by a combined 4 points) and the Raiders game where we didn’t even try for an end of the game winning FG because he missed another XP. We got to the Raiders 44 with a minute and a half left and went deep 4 times.

It’s not good when you talk about not missing FGs for a kicker and have to say missing XPs isn’t a big deal (average for NFL is over 94% and Gano is 91% the past 3 years) and you forget that the coach lost so much faith in him after 2016. In his pro-bowl year Ron wasn’t attempting long FGs. He attempted (and missed) his one 50 yard attempt in his pro-bowl year. Maybe you not remember how many times Ron punting instead of attempting long FGs. Helped Gano’s stats to look much better until the playoffs.

I conceded the Detroit game so you didn’t have to go through the trouble of explaining that one. Also, your statement about Gano’s contract is simply not true: he was extended in 2018 following his career-best 2017 season.

Generally I don’t easily adhere to the idea that a kicker is attributed responsibility for a win or a loss. Much like I wouldn’t say that a QB lost us the game for missing an easy throw at the end like Cam did against the Redskins or on the 2-point conversion against the Lions. Gano looked like he had some odd case of the yips in the Detroit game and was just noticeably off, to the point where he directly altered our game plan at the end of the game, as you stated, in going for 2...which is why that’s one of the rare cases where I would predominantly attribute the loss to him. Otherwise, there are a multitude of missed plays and missed blocks and poor coaching decisions and missed calls that have comparable impact to the outcome of a game as a missed kick. You can say that a kicker’s job is to make kicks, but that applies to any position...a QB has to make throws, a receiver has to catch balls, an o-lineman has to make blocks, a CB has to defend the pass, etc. So Gano certainly contributed to the loss, but he doesn’t always “lose the game” by missing a kick in a 3-point loss, as many posters like to suggest.

I’m not saying that missing XPs isn’t a big deal, I’m saying that all of his missed XPs in the last two years ironically coincided with victories, aside from the aforementioned Lions game and the Redskins where we lost by 6. Therefore it’s a tough sell to make the argument that his missed XPs lost us any games, again, other than Detroit.

Ron’s decision to punt instead of attempt long FGs has always been bizarre and a testament to poor game management IMO, rather than a testament to Gano’s ability. Gano has always had a strong leg and his 50+ FG percentage has been over 60 since joining the Panthers, which perhaps isn’t among the elite, but isn’t a reason to shy away from attempting FGs in the 50ish yard range.

As with many of the criticisms on these boards, I think Gano’s struggles are extremely dramatized...a point you’ve even illustrated yourself with your “Ganope” pseudonym. There’s a stark difference in saying “missing a FG in a 3 point loss matters” vs. saying “he lost so and so games” because he missed one kick. The latter absolves every other poorly performing player of all of their mishaps which also contributed to each respective loss. That kind of thinking is extremely short-sighted imo.

Side note: if you’re referencing a gameplan where we decided to go deep 4 plays in a row at the Oakland 44 with a minute and a half to go, down 3...I’m attributing that to terrible playcalling over Gano 10/10 times. Keep in mind that many of Gano’s XP missed were blocked (including that Raiders game), which oftentimes is the fault of the o-line in either letting an edge rusher go unblocked, or allowing their defender to get his hands up for a block up the middle.