Dan Quinn on the Commanders' kicking situation: 'It's certainly not where we want it'
Riley Patterson has had success in his three seasons in the NFL, with an 88.1 field goal percentage and only four missed PATs in his career, but he just hasn’t looked the part this preseason so far – just 2-for-5 on field goals.
The Commanders’ kicking situation has been in flux since Brandon McManus was released, and as Dan Quinn told the Junkies Tuesday morning, that flux might not be over.
“It's certainly not where we want it, that’s fair to say. It's such an important part in our league – like 70 percent of games last year were within one score. So knowing how important that is, is such a big deal,” Quinn said. “We have two weeks before we get into the final roster, so we've got work to do to improve on that spot, and we'll dig in to make sure that we’re really going forward and nailing it in every way. But, you know, still got work to do at that spot and, and some other ones as well.”
Was it perhaps a confidence issue, or a technique issue, when he was 2-for-4 on Saturday?
“More technique I would day, because in our practice against the Dolphins Thursday, he was 6-for-6 and had three or more over 50, so it felt really good,” Quinn said. “It was more technical, I think, and those are the things that you wanna make sure you're working at. You look outside and see the person out on the field who's going through steps and the visualizations, and that’s really what you're looking for as a coach – the player to say, ‘hey, these are some things that I have to get fixed and I'll work on it.’ I don't know about you, but the people that improve the most are the guys that have the ability to have self-awareness to go correct it; when somebody knows what went wrong, that's a lot easier to fix. If they say I don’t know, then you got more problems. So the fact he had a clear understanding of what he needed to fix and how he needed to do it, that gives any coach good insight.”
But…
“At the end of the day, we are in a performance spot and we got to be able to deliver on that, and that’s where we’re at heading into this game,” Quinn said.
And how do the new kickoff rules affect things? Does it mean leg strength isn’t as important?
“It’s a great question that's been debated all spring around the league, because if you can hit it on the ground, the kicking team can leave earlier, and it can make it a little more challenging to field,” Quinn said. “Think of being a shortstop or second baseman, if you get a nice hop, you can throw that guy out, but if you misjudge it and now all of a sudden it pops to a second hop, those are where it's tough. But, I think there'll probably be some times where maybe there's a return, or you're at the end of the game where you say we still wanna go kick this out; there's an advantage with the kickers that have the ability to hit it into the landing zone between the 20-yard-line and the goal line; if you're short of the landing zone, it's the same penalty as kicking it out of bounds, it goes all the way to the 40. So think of it like ‘don't leave a birdie putt short,’ or else the other team is 20-25 yards away from potential points. Some cool strategies going with it, but I like where we're at; lots of stuff still that we're working through, but I think when it gets to the opening weekend, it's gonna be kind of wild and kind of fun.”
