Adam Vinatieri’s nephew could be the next Patriots kicker

Chase Vinatieri could kick in New England.

Family connections have been heavily discussed in this year’s draft. Randy Moss’ son Thaddeus has been climbing up draft boards in recent weeks. Antoine Winfield Jr., son of the Pro-Bowl cornerback, has found his way into the mid rounds in most mock drafts. Now, another family tie is being discussed as a potential addition for the Patriots.

Chase Vinatieri, nephew of former Patriots and Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri, may be the next kicker for New England. The younger Vinatieri finished his college career at San Diego State with 47 of his 70 field goal attempts (67.1%) and 221 of his 234 extra point attempts (94.4%).

Earlier this offseason, the Patriots released Stephen Gostkowski after 14 seasons in New England following a disappointing year that ended prematurely with the kicker on season-ending injured reserve. So, the need for a new kicker is dire.

Vinatieri is currently the fifth-ranked kicker in this draft, according to ESPN’s Todd McShay. He falls behind Georgia’s Rodrigo Blankenship, Georgia Southern’s Tyler Bass, and UCLA’s J.J. Molson. With so few kickers being drafted, the Patriots may be able to pick up Vinatieri as an undrafted free agent and use their late-round picks on other positions.

New England also may have more information on Vinatieri due to his work with Mike McCabe, a kicking coach in Birmingham, Alabama. McCabe spent time working with Ryan Allen before the Patriots signed Allen as an undrafted free agent in 2013.

There are many directions the Patriots can go to find their next kicker, but it would be really cool to see another Vinatieri making important kicks in Foxboro.

[vertical-gallery id=83610]

5 kickers the Jets should avoid in free agency

Jets Wire takes a look at five free-agent kickers Joe Douglas should avoid.

Kicking was a disaster for the Jets in 2019.

Between Chandler Catanzaro retiring out of the blue, Kaare Vedvik missing two kicks on opening day and Sam Ficken being hit or miss the rest of the way, the Jets failed to kick with consistency last season.

Ficken, who only made 70.4 percent of his field goals for the Jets, going 19-27 in addition to going 23-26 on extra-point attempts. In total, he missed 11 kicks and hindered the Jets more than he helped. Ficken, an exclusive rights free agent, will likely be let go, as the Jets signed former Dallas Cowboys kicker Brett Maher to a reserve/futures deal in December.

That said, the Jets still need to bring in kicking competition for Maher, whether it comes from free agency or the draft. However, there are some kickers the Jets should avoid at all costs. Let’s take a look.

Adam Vinatieri

Father time has finally caught up to the greatest kicker the sport has ever seen.

In 2019, Adam Vinatieri hit just 68 percent of his field goals while costing Colts three different games. For a team that finished 7-9, that was the difference between missing the playoffs and potentially winning the AFC South Division title.

Vinatieri has played 24 seasons in the NFL, only playing for two teams in the process. Although the future Hall of Famer has spent the past 14 seasons in Indianapolis, he will hit the open market. There is no guarantee he will return to the Colts for a 15th season.

With Vinatieri’s best days clearly behind him, he shouldn’t be anywhere near the Jets’ radar. Vinatieri may still want to kick, ending his storied career on his own terms. If that’s the case, it shouldn’t be in New York.

Pages: 12345

Most amazing, least likely breakable Super Bowl records

Most amazing, least likely breakable Super Bowl records

Well, as you no doubt imagine, we must start with the Patriots. Bill Belichick and Tom Brady are going to dominate these first few slides, and that’s because it seems unlikely any coach or player will top these two in certain categories. Other ones, …

Other ones, who knows—but we’ve picked the records that you shouldn’t get you into too many debates at the bar (over too many beers).

These seem like iron-clad locks to remain records:

Most Super Bowl games played, 9, Tom Brady

(Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports)

Does anyone really think there’s ever gonna be another QB who starts nine times—nine times, Mrs. Bueller—in Super Bowls? This seems highly unlikely.

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6, Page 7, Page 8, Page 9, Page 10

Colts already have their replacement for Adam Vinatieri

Colts won’t have to look far for Adam Vinatieri’s replacement.

Though it may come on the back of his worst season, it appears the time has come for veteran kicker Adam Vinatieri and the Indianapolis Colts to part ways.

The 47-year-old missed a career-high 14 kicks during the 2019 season and also ended his campaign on the injured reserve to undergo knee surgery. His age, production decline and the fact that he’s a pending free agent point to his return being unlikely.

But the Colts don’t need to worry—they already have his replacement on the roster.

When Vinatieri had to be placed on the injured reserve list, the Colts signed rookie kicker Chase McLaughlin, who had already spent time with four other teams during the 2019 season.

The undrafted rookie played well for the Colts in his four-game stretch. He made five of his six field-goal attempts and converted all 11 of his extra-point attempts. It was a nice showing of consistency at a position that didn’t show much of it during the season.

Vinatieri’s legacy shouldn’t be defined by his poor 2019 campaign. He’s the NFL’s all-time leading scorer and leader in converted field goals for a reason. He was immensely consistent. But it’s time for the Colts to move on.

McLaughlin is already under contract for the 2020 season after the Colts signed him to a one-year extension almost as soon as the offseason began for them.

The Colts were impressed with McLaughlin, and he could be a solid option at kicker while also having the chance to be a mainstay for a while given that he is only 23 years old.

The Colts have a lot of decisions to make this offseason, but their choice at the kicker position should already be made.

The NFL’s 25 best postseason players from the Super Bowl era

Maybe one day Patrick Mahomes or, who knows who else (Joe Burrows even? Heh. Too soon? Too soon?) might join this list, but for now, let’s go with these 25. Some were clear choices while others you might dispute for someone else, but it’s obviously a list full of Super Bowl MVP QBs, so guessing the top 10 or 12 should be easy. The rest are guys you sometimes forget about. With research, marginal recall and experts’ input, here’s the final call.

(Editor’s note: These are not ranked, although the first few are the ones that quickly became clear.)

Tom Brady

He’s at the top of the list for reasons: He’s guided the Patriots to nine (!) Super Bowls and six titles and he has four Super Bowl MVP trophies, all NFL records.

Pages: 123456789101112131415161718192021222324

3 Colts who underachieved the most in 2019

These Colts failed to live up to expectations in 2019.

The Indianapolis Colts season didn’t go as planned. After a strong 5-2 start, they lost five of their last seven to finish 7-9 and miss the playoffs for the fourth time in five years.

While a lot went into the disappointing season, there were a few players that didn’t meet expectations in a big way.

Here are three Colts who underachieved the most in 2019:

QB Jacoby Brissett

Thrust into the starting job after the sudden retirement of Andrew Luck in late-August, Brissett had a strong start to his 2019 campaign, but his play fell off at the end of 2019.

A lot of factors went into Brissett being an underachiever in 2019—the Week 9 injury against Pittsburgh, the lack of production from the receivers and injuries all around.

One thing Brissett did have was a consistent run offense that finished top-10 in the NFL, and a defense that was around top-10 until the final month of the season.

Looking at Brissett’s raw stats and he finished 26th in completion percentage, 27th in pass yards, 26th in pass touchdowns, 20th in QBR and 18th in QB rating. Those simply won’t get it done in the NFL. Even so, Brissett could have the 2020 campaign to make his case to be a long-term quarterback.

Pages: 123

4 pending free agents the Colts should let walk

Colts should let these pending free agents walk.

2020 will be one of the biggest offseasons in recent Indianapolis Colts’ history. After finishing the season losing five of the final six games, the Colts finished 7-9 and have a lot of questions about their roster going into the offseason.

Indianapolis has a few free agents going into the offseason and with a projected $93 million in cap space, there is no strap for cash to keep the guys they want to.

The Colts have 14 unrestricted free agents. These players will be able to sign with anyone in March when the new league year starts. Or the Colts can sign them to an extension beforehand. But not all of the pending free agents should be re-signed.

Let’s look at some unrestricted free agents that the Colts should let go:

K Adam Vinatieri

Last offseason, the Colts brought back Vinatieri on a one-year deal. As the oldest player in the league at age 46 going into the 2019 season, there were questions if Vinatieri could still kick at a high level.

After suffering a knee injury that had him miss most of the training camp and the preseason, Vinatieri struggled out of the gate missing two field goals and two extra points in the first two games of the season. The Colts tried out some kickers but stuck with Vinatieri.

Vinatieri was put on injured reserve after going 1 of 4 versus the Tennessee Titans, one of which was blocked, and the Colts turned to rookie Chase McLaughlin.

McLaughlin finished the final five games 5 of 6 on field goals and a perfect 11 of 11 on extra points. Indianapolis re-signed McLaughlin to a one-year extension on December 30.

Pages: 1234

Colts have no regrets on handling Adam Vinatieri in 2019

Frank Reich spoke about handling Adam Vinatieri in 2019.

Whether it was dealing with inconsistent production or dealing with a knee injury, Indianapolis Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri endured what is likely going to be his worst season in the NFL.

Over the span of 24 seasons, Vinatieri set a career-high in missed kicks (14) and was only able to play 12 games. The trend started early in the season, but the Colts felt it was right to stick by the future Hall of Famer.

Now that the season has ended, head coach Frank Reich still believes the Colts made the right move when it came to keeping Vinatieri on the field as long as he was healthy.

“I wish it would’ve worked out better numbers wise. But when I look back on it – I think I am being pretty honest with myself – given all the factors, given his history, given what we were seeing out at practice and given the fact that he started out a little bit slow and got into a little bit of a groove for three or four games, he had earned it,” Reich said Monday. “I think he had earned it and I think he had earned the right to play that thing out until the end with the injury. So no I don’t have any regrets on it.”

The entire league has been dealing with a kicking problem for the last few seasons. It wasn’t just the Colts in 2019. But Vinatieri’s decline—whether due to injury or otherwise—came about extremely quickly and proved to be a major detriment to the team.

Vinatieri’s struggles weren’t the only reason the Colts wound up missing the playoffs, but even Reich admitted it was understood that the 47-year-old’s lack of consistent production hurt the team.

“It goes without saying that any missed kick, missed throw, missed block or missed tackle hurts the team. So yes, that is understood,” said Reich.

Vinatieri just underwent knee surgery to repair the injury that forced him to the injured reserve list. The Colts signed Chase McLaughlin to a one-year extension on Monday so there is a chance Vinny’s time in Indy is over.

It would be in the best interest of the team to move on from Vinatieri this offseason, but the Colts still feel they made the right choice early in the season to stick by the veteran.