Miami Dolphins kickers are the competition of the summer

The Miami Dolphins kickers have been battling throughout the whole summer and the competition is starting to heat up as the final cuts inch closer and closer and each players wants to be on the right side of the roster moves.

Preseason is an awesome time of the year. First, and quite definitely foremost, it means that football is back. Second, it gives us a great chance to take a number of different looks at a bunch of different players on the Miami Dolphins, whether they are new or if they have been with Miami for a number of years.

This year, training camp has provided us with a lot to talk from all over the field. Who will start opposite Xavien Howard? Who will back up Ryan Tannehill? Is Tannehill healthy and will he stay healthy for the whole year? But, who would have known that one of the best questions of this preseason would have been about kickers.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. We’re talkin’ kickers! With good reason as well.

Miami invested a 2018 7th round pick on Jason Sanders, a senior kicker out of New Mexico. In 2017, Sanders went 28 for 28 on extra points and 10 for 15 on field goals. He finished his collegiate career converting on 71.4% of his field goal attempts and 99.1% of his extra points.

These numbers don’t jump off the page, especially his field goal percentage. But, Miami invested a draft pick in him and needless to say he was brought in to be the kicker in Miami.

In comes local product Greg Joseph out of Florida Atlantic. Joseph was signed as a free agent kicker after the draft and has comparable collegiate stats to Sanders. In 2017, Joseph went 64 for 68 on extra points and converted on 15 of 21 of his field goal attempts. He finished his career hitting 69.5 % of his field goals and 97.1% of extra points.

With the exception of a few points here and there, both rookie kickers came into the NFL with similar stats and a lot of work to do in order to make the team.

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Throughout camp, reports have been coming in that both kickers seem to be performing well. Both seem to have extremely strong legs (both hitting from over 60 in camp) and are relatively consistent on their field goal attempts, in practice. When it comes to camp, neither kicker has really distanced himself from the other.

So, let’s look at the past two preseason games. In both games, Sanders started as the team’s kicker. Sanders went 2 for 3 that game with a long of 29 and hitting his only extra point try. Joseph went 1/1 with a long of 48 and had no extra point attempts. Based on these stats, the missed field goal seems to hurt Sanders. But, Joseph had his fair share of mistakes as well. His first kickoff went out of bounds costing the team valuable yardage. It would seem the missed field goal and the out of bounds kick off cancelled each other out and we are back where we started.

For game two of the preseason, Sanders went 3 for 3 with a long of 42 and Joseph connected on his only attempt for 54 yards. There were no out of bounds kickoffs and both kickers looked like they had more than enough leg through all their kicks. Again, it would seem that neither out played the other.

When it comes to stats and numbers, they are the same player, more or less. Both deserve the job after their performances in camp and in-game, but with a deeper look, in the eyes of this writer,  Joseph is taking a lead over the competition.

I know that Joseph winning the job will be tough, especially since Sanders has the added protection of being a draft pick. In Joseph’s case, however, one specific thing struck me in the last preseason game that made my allegiances switch to Joseph over Sanders.

When Joseph went in to kick his 54 yard field goal, he had not kicked at any other point in the game aside from warm ups. He went out there cold and kicked a great ball, that had enough distance to go even further. He demonstrated poise and composure while going out there, both of which are necessary for kickers to do well in the NFL.

Yes, I know that it is preseason and I understand that we haven’t really seen enough from either kicker to really choose one or the other. From my perspective, however, Joseph might have taken a slight edge because of his performance last week. My hope is that both kickers get the chance to continue to show their skills in the final preseason games and that we end up going with a clear-cut winner.

Before we get to that point, something tells me that Joseph is going to be a very good kicker in this league and I hope he’s wearing Dolphins colors when that happens.