2017 Camp Battles: Specialists and Final 53-Man Roster Prediction
LBVikings
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Specialists are often the forgotten few on NFL rosters. The best kickers and punters go unnoticed, only drawing attention when they fail to meet expectations. But come the clutchest moments of the biggest games, stars like Adam Vinatieri or Justin Tucker come through, while the Blair Walsh and Scott Norwood types are banished in infamy. The Vikings have a completely new special teams crew after releasing Blair Walsh and getting outbid by the Colts for Jeff Locke. Now, the kicker and punter positions are a prize for which four players are battling, while long snapper Kevin McDermott works to gain chemistry with the eventual winners.
Kai Forbath – It’s rare to have a kicker stay with their original team for long. Kickers like Kai Forbath have such a short leash, and young players are constantly pushing veterans to the street. Forbath has had such a career, entering his 7th season on his 5th team. After going undrafted out of UCLA in 2011 thanks to a quad injury, he waited in the wings for the Dallas Cowboys while Dan Bailey stole the job from him. He stayed on the Non-football injury list until the 2012 offseason, where he was waived. He stayed with the Buccaneers for that preseason, until Connor Barth’s performance pushed him out once more. By October, however, the Redskins needed to replace Billy Cundiff, still reeling from his historic miss in the AFC championship. Forbath came to Washington and stayed there for some time, finally catching his stride. He stayed in Washington until the 2015 preseason, where even the smallest hiccup can prompt a team to move on. A rough training camp landed him on the Saints, another team with an ailing kicker in Zach Hocker. Forbath failed to improve on Hocker’s performance, getting cut in favor of the younger, more promising Wil Lutz. He stayed unemployed until yet another team needed to replace a struggling kicker. Forbath did well in relief, but his distance limitations were felt, and Forbath once again finds himself in a life-or-death struggle with a young challenger.
Marshall Koehn – Koehn left the Iowa Hawkeyes a hero in 2016, known for big plays with his big leg. Koehn also turned heads at the NFL Combine (as much as a kicker can) with the fastest 40-yard dash by a kicker in at least a decade. Like most kickers, he went undrafted, but got his shot with the Miami Dolphins in a competition with Andrew Franks, who was coming off of a respectable 13/16 season. Franks held Koehn off, and he stayed out of the league until after the season, when the Vikings brought him in. Koehn has another chance to catch his stride in the NFL, though, his inconsistency leaves questions. Missed extra points, a phenomenon the Vikings should be familiar with, were plentiful to Koehn, who missed six in his senior year at Iowa. Should Koehn be able to lock down his consistency, he could steal this job from the incumbent Kai Forbath.
Taylor Symmank – Most NFL players have been practicing since elementary or middle school- honing their craft and general mechanics. Taylor Symmank, on the other hand, learned to punt in 2011 after graduating high school. The phenom emerged at Texas Tech despite this, putting together an NFL-worthy résumé, until a hip injury in 2015 put a stop to his momentum. By the end of his senior year, he was questionable, and entered the draft process with a question mark surrounding his hip. Symmank went to Vikings’ minicamp in 2016, but ultimately didn’t show enough to challenge incumbent Jeff Locke. He also visited the Green Bay Packers, but ultimately sat out the 2016 season. Symmank has his first true NFL opportunity in front of him now, as he attempts to make the Vikings a second time.
Ryan Quigley – Quigley entered the league coming off a stellar career with Boston College, and his first NFL action was to try and replace injured Bears punter Adam Podlesh. Once Podlesh came back from his injury, however, Quigley was waived, and nearly gave up on the NFL entirely. He finished his degree at BC and waited for the phone to ring. In April of 2013, he tried out for the Jets and signed the day after, winning a tight competition with Robert Malone. He punted for the Jets for two years, staying mostly out of the spotlight. In 2015, however, Quigley suffered a skin infection on his shin. It only sidelined him for a little while, but Quigley was never the same afterwards. A high-profile shank in a do-or-die week 17 game capped off Quigley’s tenure with the Jets, who let his contract expire. Quigley then spent the 2016 preseason relieving Eagles’ punter Donnie Jones, but didn’t make the final roster. Quigley then replaced injured Cardinals’ punter Drew Butler for a few weeks before signing with Minnesota in the offseason. This remains Quigley’s first true chance at nabbing a punting job since his tenure with the Jets, and he’ll have to prove that he’s both healthy and capable to do so.
Kevin McDermott – as the only incumbent to remain from the 2016 unit, Kevin McDermott will have no competition at long snapper this preseason. McDermott snapped for the 49ers for a year, knocking off veteran Brian Jennings. He only lasted a single year in San Francisco, moving to Denver where he battled incumbent Aaron Brewer. He landed on Denver’s practice squad until Ravens long snapper Morgan Cox tore his ACL. The Ravens signed McDermott and carried him through the season. In 2016, the Vikings took McDermott to battle yet another incumbent, 10 year vet Cullen Loeffler. McDermott won the battle, and has remained the long snapper ever since. He’ll use camp to gain chemistry with the winners of the kicker and punter battles, hoping they can assemble a functioning unit by September 11th.
Punt Returner – While we’ve already covered all of these players in other articles, it’s worth talking about the returner positions. CB Marcus Sherels is the incumbent returner, but will be challenged by WR Rodney Adams, WR Stacey Coley, WR Adam Thielen and WR Cayleb Jones. In these special team situations, the advantage goes to players like Coley and Adams who are lower on the depth chart- Thielen is too important to be fielding punts. So far in camp, there’s been no indication that Sherels’ stranglehold on the punt return position is in any jeopardy, but stranger things have happened.
Kick Returner – With the departure of Cordarrelle Patterson, many are looking toward Rodney Adams to replace him as the kick returner. Mike Zimmer emphasized that competition exists for Adams, however, from Stacey Coley or even a double-duty Marcus Sherels. It appears Adams is the frontrunner, but it will be worth watching as the preseason moves forward.
As promised, at the end of this series, I give my personal prediction for the 53-man roster. While most of this series has been based around backstory and the humanity of deep-roster players, it’d be a major letdown to cover every battle on every nook and cranny of the roster without positing which way I think they’ll go. Below, you can find my roster prediction with position-by-position explanations where needed. Linked to those positions is their respective Camp Battle article, so you can catch up on any you missed.
QB: No room for ambiguity here. When Teddy comes back, Perhaps Keenum or Heinicke gets cut, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
RB: C.J. Ham appears to be the fullback, and at first glance, Pat Shurmur is using plays that involve a fullback. Cook, Murray and McKinnon are givens, barring health concerns.
WR: The first five receivers are largely set, with Coley, Freuchte and Böhringer battling over a potential sixth spot. Coley has the most realistic upside, so I’ll give him the nod. MoBo heads to the practice squad for a second year- he seems to have improved, but not enough.
TE: While there isn’t much room for debate, it’s worth nothing that Nick Truesdell will have to show a lot more than his arena tape to create a 4th TE slot. Rudolph, Morgan and Hodges are all but locks.
OL: Freddie Tagaloa’s story lends itself to a resurgence, though the battle will be uphill. A year on the practice squad will do him well. Clemmings and Beavers have been stains on the organization, and could be honest-to-god outplayed by new additions like Rashod Hill and Danny Isidora. With Sirles as a versatile backup, interior/exterior designations become less important, and rather, the best players survive.
DE: The battle between Odenigbo and Weatherly should be fierce, should both stay healthy. I have Odenigbo, but the loser almost certainly goes to the practice squad.
DT: This is possibly the toughest one- one of J. Johnson, T. Johnson, Jones, Sutton and Stephen must be let go. I opted with Stephen, as his pedigree is the lowest, and I believe in Sutton’s ability in a 4-3. But this is close.
LB: Emmanuel Lamur hasn’t shown himself to be of rosterable quality, and is being pushed by promising youngsters. Ed Robinson would likely win the WLB job here, though, it’s possible for Gedeon to steal the MLB spot and kick Kendricks outside. Brothers’ health is uncertain, however, leaving an opening for Eric Wilson or Noor Davis.
CB: Exum has evidently moved to nickel corner, and his skill from college could possibly shine there more than safety. He’d provide more valuable and versatile depth than Price or Roberson in that regard, but Roberson’s potential is too great to leave him off the practice squad.
S: Harris appears to have reached the limit of his athletic ability, and it’s time to give way to more talented jocks. He’ll be great depth somewhere in the league, but the Vikings look elsewhere.
K: As exciting as Koehn is, his inconsistency is too great a burden to bear for a team still scarred from 2015’s Wide Left. Forbath may be limited, but predictable limitations can be strategized around. Missed extra points can’t.
P: Symmank’s talent is undeniable. Quigley’s bounced from team to team, and while that largely wasn’t his fault, his post-skin-infection decline has been well-documented.
PS: Aviante Collins needs to gain weight, and will have a year to do so. RJ Shelton is flashing in camp, and earning a chance to develop out of sight. Tashawn Bower’s raw talent is worth developing. Eric Wilson has a similar problem to Collins, weight and development can both be tackled over the season. Josiah Price provides depth in case of injury, but with no room on the roster, he’ll fall to the practice squad to develop.
Thank you all for joining me on this journey through the whole roster. Check out @PurplePTSD on twitter for threads on the players who have been signed since I’ve written their position’s article. Buckle up and enjoy the preseason, it’ll be a wild ride!