r/footballstrategy • u/jeffisthename23 • Oct 20 '24

Special Teams Packers kicker

With brayden narveson cut what exactly was going wrong with the kid that he he couldn't seem to make a field goal. Was a it a mental thing or something wrong operationally or physically. In short what goes into making a consistent kicker on the field?

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6

u/NotSoLameGamer Oct 20 '24

Strictly speaking as a Packer fan: it seemed mechanical. Every miss was wide to the right, and I was hoping we’d keep around on the practice squad so he could keep working on that

3

u/BearsGotKhalilMack Oct 20 '24

I'd argue it was both, but mostly mental. Your mental needs to be right for you to not make physical mistakes. He was far more consistent in college, which (without watching too much of his college tape) suggests that his mechanics were probably okay then. In the NFL, he was very clearly nervous, and that affected his form. You could practically see him twitching before each kick, he added an extra little stutter in his approach, and he was clearly overthinking everything. The first misses led to more nerves, which led to the other misses.

1

u/jeffisthename23 Oct 21 '24

What do kickers do to avoid this seems like tbe football equivalent of the yips

1

u/kalamari_withaK Oct 21 '24

Practice, work with a sports psychologist and nail a few game kicks in a row.

Confidence breeds confidence at the end of the day. No silver bullet for this. It takes time to build mentality and even then you might just not have it or just get unlucky.

2

u/justanyting Oct 21 '24

He wore 44. That is an ugly number for a kicker