| 29 August 2010
Apparently the battle to be the Cincinnati Bengals' kicker was even entering Saturday's preseason game against the Buffalo Bills.
The Bengals had only two field goal attempts in their 35-20 loss to the Bills. Ohio State product Mike Nugent drilled a 54-yarder, while Michigan State alumnus Dave Rayner made one from 32 yards out. I was impressed with Nugent's kick as it was nearly down the middle and would have been good from 57. However, I didn't pay it much attention past that. It was one kick and surely the two-man competition wouldn't come down to one kick in a preseason game.
However, it sounds like it's given Nugent a leg up if nothing else. Surprisingly, in a story on Bengals.com, editor Geoff Hobson says "Nugent probably has the edge" while making it clear that it's still a tight battle and nothing has been decided yet.
And don't forget that another option would be the Bengals not keeping Nugent or Rayner and signing a kicker that suddenly appears on the waiver wire after final cuts (such as the loser of the competition to be the Houston Texans' kicker between Kris Brown and former Bengal Neil Rackers).
So, we won't really know who the Bengals' 2010 kicker is until the few short days before the opener at the New England Patriots on Sept. 12 (how's that for an easy first game), but it sounds like Nuge has the edge for now. Hobson doesn't put information like that in his stories unless he has a very good source - such as a coach on the team. Don't forget Hobson's office is located inside of Paul Brown Stadium along with the rest of the Bengals' personnel. And to his credit, he does a pretty good job of speaking the truth. He doesn't rip the team unmercifully, but he wouldn't keep his job for very long if he did. Bengals.com is unquestionably one of the best NFL team sites in the league - maybe the best.
Anyway, back to the point: It's been a roller coaster of a professional career for Nugent ever since shattering every meaningful kicking record while at Ohio State. He entered the league with a boom. How many kickers can say they were a second-round pick? (And received the hefty signing bonus to go with it?) And Nugent was actually the Jets' top pick in 2005 since they didn't have a first-rounder that year.
As a rookie in '05, Nugent was 22-of-28 on field goals with a long of 49. He turned in his best pro season in 2006 when he connected on 24-of-27 field goals with a long of 54 (the same distance as the one he nailed on Saturday). In '07, he finished 29-of-36 with a long of 50.
He played all 16 games in each of his first three NFL seasons. And then the injuries came. The most-prominent was a severe thigh strain in 2008 when he finished the season with just one field goal attempt in one game (a miss).
The Jets then cut him following the season.
Nugent signed with the Tampa Bay Bucs in 2009 and actually beat out Matt Bryant for the starting gig out of training camp. However, he went 2-of-6 on field goals to open the season and was quickly shown his walking papers. Nugent was later signed during the '09 season by the Arizona Cardinals after their starting kicker - Rackers - went down with an injury, and Nugent was 2-for-2 in field goals in a pair of games.
For his career, Nugent is 79-of-100 on field goals and it's going to be interesting to see if he ends up narrowly beating out Rayner for the Bengals' starting job. You know every Ohio State fan that also roots for the Bengals is pulling for him. Me personally? Yeah, I'd like to see Nuge win the job, but I also want the best man for the job. Al Davis is loony, but I'll quote his "Just win baby" for as long as I live. That's the bottom line in this business and I hope Nugent gives the Bengals the best chance to win this year. But if it ends up being Rayner - or someone who is about to get cut by another team like Brown or Rackers - so be it.
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