The time has come for the Miami Dolphins to make a very tough decision. When the Dolphins drafted Caleb Sturgis in the fifth round of the 2013 NFL Draft, they thought they secured the kicker position for about 10 years. Sturgis was so solid at Florida during his college career, winning the SEC special team POY award in 2012 in the process, that some people believed that fifth round designation might actually have been too low. Now, just three seasons later, it is time to bring in serious competition for Caleb.
Since joining Miami, Sturgis has been a shadow of what he was as a Gator. He has hit only 55 of 71 attempts and rarely connects from long distances. Sure, he led the team in scoring last season with 128 points, but usually any kicker who plays every game for their team does. To make matters worse, Sturgis has not been able to consistently drive kickoffs into the end zone, preventing opponents from setting up lengthy returns. With the lack of depth on the Dolphins’ roster recently, their special teams unit has been made up of a motley bunch of fringe NFL players. Having to chase down rival returners has only highlighted that deficiency.
A few days ago, Sturgis really slowed down any chance of a solid 2015 season when he injured his quad during a kickball game. He is expected to miss at least four weeks, which means he will be out of all remaining OTAs. The kickball exhibition was a sanctioned event by the Dolphins to build team chemistry. In reality, all it did was send Miami’s coaches back into the lab to try and concoct a formula for their special teams. By the way, does anyone else find it humorous that a highly paid professional kicker was injured participating in a child’s game that is based on kicking? That would be akin to Ryan Tannehill tearing his rotator cuff playing the football toss game at the county fair, but I digress.
With or without the ironic injury, Sturgis needed to be pushed this summer. Miami already has free agent rookie Andrew Franks trying out for the team, but “frankly” does he really excite anyone? He does have a strong leg and has looked decent in the OTAs, but he kicked at tiny Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York. Pretty sure the Redhawks are not eligible for this year’s college football playoff. Asking Franks to win the starting kicker job on an NFL squad is like asking a 75-1 long shot to win horse racing’s triple crown. The only problem is that finding a veteran challenger to Sturgis’ throne may be a difficult task.
There are not many viable candidates hanging around in free agency. Sure there are familiar names such as Jay Feely, Shayne Graham and Billy Cundiff waiting for a phone call, but if they were still any good, they would have been invited to somebody’s OTAs by now.
The Dolphins’ brass has done a nice job so far this offseason manipulating the salary cap, moving out dead contracts and bringing in talented younger athletes who will stay around for the future. The imposing job now is to come up with someone who can unseat Sturgis or at least scare him straight. There is no need to cut the veteran kicker if he can shake his injury and regain the game he had in Gainesville. Yet, if Sturgis doesn’t at least feel that his chances of making the regular season roster are slim without improvement, then Miami’s hopes of making the playoffs may be kicked to the curb.