The thing about Crosby currently is that he's in a mental slump.
Bringing in another kicker isn't going to light a fire under Crosby because he's ALREADY thinking that he's lost his job (until McCarthy came out and said that Crosby will be our kicker). Bringing in someone would have just worsened Crosby's resolve and he probably would have just given up then and there. McCarthy is trying to instill that confidence, that swagger back into Crosby.
If your child fails a test you don't go to him and say you're going to start supporting his brother/sis more because of his failure. You sit him down on 1 knee and tell him that it's not the end of the world, that his skill is just too great and that he'll recover and be fine. As much as I hate our skill players being emotionally fragile, that is currently what Crosby is and in a way, McCarthy is right to be standing behind him the way he has.
However, being that the NFL is a business, if McCarthy has a viable replacement ready and rearing to go and believed in that kicker, Crosby could be gone tomorrow irrespective of what is said today.
"TheEngineer" wrote:
Good points Engineer. I feel there are a couple reasons behind keeping him.
A) He was a draft pick of ours so it would be admitting failure to a degree. You just don't cut someone that you spent that much time evaluating.
B) The talent pool for kickers is low right now and picking up a new kicker would be a rash decision. Crosby still has time to figure this out, it's not like he's eliminated us from the playoffs, in fact are road to the playoffs really couldn't seem much easier despite a heartbreaking loss.
C) The guy has an enormous wealth of talent. If we were to cut Crosby I bet plenty of teams would dump a roster spot just to get at him. Just look at the Cowboys. Washington cut Suisham because he missed and now the Cowboys have picked him up. People from other organizations would love to take a look at a guy like Crosby.
D) Face it, kickers miss field goals. It's something as a coach you'd like to be automatic but just like anything else in the sports world it's not.
E) If you dissect his last four misses all around the 35-45 yard range he's kicked the exact same miss. It's from the right hashmark and he barely misses it. It's not like the guy is kicking them ridiculously wide right. This is obviously a problem in his kicking motion or technique from that side of the field if it shows up consistently and probably is an easy fix. I know you'll get on me for saying that i.e., "well why hasn't he fixed it by now?" In all seriousness I believe he has. He says he rarely misses a kick in practice or before the game. If he can just settle down he has the talent and tools to be a great kicker.
Lastly, I have to say is look at our punting situation. We have Kapinos after we cut Ryan for Frost last year because Ryan made a few consistent mistakes. Ryan is with Seattle now where he hasn't reproduced any of those mistakes and is a decent punter. Kapinos was recently ranked by Sports Illustrated as 32nd (dead last) in the league. If we cut Crosby, he could be picked up by another team and have fixed his right hashmark kicking problem making us look stupid, while on the other end we bring in a guy that has only proven he can kick in a tryout.
It's a dumb decision to make this late in the season.