The Cleveland Browns, apparently deciding that predictability at the kicking position is for chumps, signed veteran place kicker Billy Cundiff to a contract on Tuesday.
Cundiff was a Pro Bowl kicker back in 2010, for what that honor is worth, after making 26-of-29 field goals for Baltimore. But things definitely took a turn for the worse once he returned from Hawaii.
In 2011, he missed nine field goals in the regular season before famously missing a 32-yard field goal that would have sent the AFC Championship Game into overtime.
The Ravens released him after that season and he bounced around between San Francisco (where he did not attempt a kick) to Washington (where was just seven-of-12) before being released.
For his career, Cundiff has made just 75 percent of his field goals and has only converted more than 80 percent in a single season once. By comparison, Phil Dawson, the kicker that Cundiff is replacing, has made 84 percent of his field goals in his career and has converted less than 80 percent just once since 2002 – and that was seven years ago.
And that is the biggest problem – Billy Cundiff is not Phil Dawson.
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The Cleveland Browns lost their season-opening game on Sunday to Miami, the ninth-consecutive they have opened the season with a loss and the 14th time they have pulled off that feat since 1999.
Red Right 88 