What an awful signing. An old kicker who went 10-for-17 last year IN A DOME is now expected to hit 80+ percent of his FG's in this weather?!! What a stupid move. If 2 years and 3.5 mil is correct, it's the exact same contract DJ Hackett signed. Which player is better? And before you give me a limp excuse like injuries, umm- Mare hurt his leg last year and missed the last few games of the season. So yeah, you just signed a social security-earning kicker that hurt his leg a few months ago 3.5 mil for two years, but you wouldn't give that same money to the wide receiver with the best hands and the best size on the team. Just another reason this team sucks. Every year I'm not in charge of this organization is another year it doesn't win the Super Bowl. Look it up.

Neat.

Olindo and Hass can compare stories about Marino vs. Favre.

hey hawks4372 maybe you should do a little more research. mare was

4-5 20-29 yards
1-1 30-39 yards
2-3 40-49 yards
1-5 50+ yards

so the guy doesnt have a huge leg. big deal. hes accurate. mare and brown are both career 80% kickers. great insurance policy. obviously were not the only ones who thought so considering the broncos offered him a contract to. hell he might not even be on the team come september. and by the way, your post made you sound pretty ignorant. you could lead us to the superbowl huh. right...hey we shoulda locked dj up long term, like 15 million a year. hawk for life just like tru and tatupu.

um, last I knew you werent in charge of this team in 05 and we made it to the SuperBowl....quit your wining you fricking idiot!!
TR knows what he is doing, and it is obvious that you dont!!! Shut up and dont bring that "if I were running the show" talk in here.

Idiot!!!

Guaranteed Money according to Clayton is low so if we draft a rookie and he wins the starter position we are out very little money to cut Mare. It is not like there were a lot of options left at kiceker in Free Agency. This gives a little insurance in case we can not draft anyone better. I am done with the Josh Brown debate. Dude just did not want to be here. Which was obvious since he had to call every radio station in town for an interview after he left the team just to try to make him sound like the good guy.

Olindo Mare 50+ yards in last three seasons: 3-13
Josh Brown 50+ yards in last three seasons: 11-18

Boo.

Kiss touchbacks goodbye.

actually Mare had a touchback % of 28.8% last year, second in the league. It happens to be one of his strengths.

Hawk blogger, I hope you're kidding. Mare had 15 touchbacks in 52 tries. Brown had 13 in 87.

I'm so tired of idiots coming on here and making stupid comments. Must be a bunch of high school girls.

I wouldn't call them stupid so much as uninformed.

It is interesting, though, that Mare has the leg for touchbacks but not long field goals....

But can he tackle Devin Hester?

hawks4372

Since you seam to think the team sucks so bad why don't you quit watching them? We wont miss you.

Comment by aseahawkfan @ 22:03 - Thursday, March 27th, 2008

"But can he tackle Devin Hester"


I hope more than anything that josh brown tries to put his nose in on a seahawks kickoff return. I would rather see him get destroyed by our returner or a blocker than see us score a touchdown.

And if he can tackle Devin Hester, will he bust out one of those awesome celebrations? By the way we showed Josh Brown the money and he dogged us.

I don't think it's necessarily that he doesn't have the leg for the field goals. But he's probably just not very accurate.

10 for 17.

People are defending this guy? C'mon people those are crap numbers, 59% FG's made.

This move is total reach. Denver and Seattle went hard for this guy because they had no other choice.

Josh brown made 82% and Elam made 87%. Mare was last in the league with the next closest guy being Rackers at 70%. A couple guys has 3-4 attempts but we won't count them.

http://www.nfl.com/players/search?category=position&filter=kicker&conferenceAbbr=null&playerType=current&conference=ALL

This one's a head scratcher. Okay he improves 10% and still is the worst kicker in the league. Lets hope they pickup a rookie that can beat him out in camp.

Guys, Timmay's goal was to sign a veteran and draft or sign an undrafted rookie to compete. Josh Brown was a 7th rounder (222nd overall) and typically you can find good kickers late in the draft so that is still out there. We offered to make Josh the highest paid kicker in the NFL & he chose to go to the Rams. We can't go back so let's go forward. And for those of you who are not happy with this signing, who would you have gone after at this point?

ARGH. Boooooooooooooo on this.

Mare had a groin injury for many of his games last year before his season ending injury in wk 13, so if he heals up he might return to his previous, above-average level. or not. It was a crap-shoot either way, even with Brown, as kickers routinely go south and sometimes rebound (M Andersen), sometimes fall off the face of the earth (Vanderjagt). If he looks good, we get a vet who has been there before. If not, a rookie will take over.
Either way, I'd be happier with longer kickoffs. No need to tackle Hester if he's kneeling in the endzone.

Trufant is the greatest CB in the NFL, Mare is a reasonable pickup, let Brown go, Ruskell (sp?) gets a pass...KoolAid? KoolAid, anyone?

That Mare can't hit from deep is a HUGE problem! The Hawks depended on those long FG's TO WIN GAMES! It's not like Brown hit 20 yarders to win games, they were 45 yards or more.

Putting things off and hoping for a kicker in the draft is a poor idea, look how that philosophy helped us with out D-Line and TE troubles a few years back. There are teams that make moves to get what they need when they only need a little and then there are teams that sit back and hope things fall to them.

I'm sorry, I'm just not impressed with Ruskell (sp?). I hope to be wrong.

Thank the football gods that we are only talking about a kicker and not the holes another team is experiencing. We are set in an awesome position for the draft. go Hawks!

So, what happened to Elam? Why didn't the Hawks persue him?

I think most of you are forgeting the fact that this is a team sport. How good did Josh look last year when we were having trouble with our long snapper? Looking at starting field position, a key to most games, has as much to do with the other guys on the field at kickoffs as it has to do with the kicker. If individual stats are that telling, then you should be able to look at the NYG's last year and predict thier run at the SB? No way!

Look at the big picture. Our coaches and front office have been giving us a real good to great team the last five years and if I have doubts about a move, I am happy at this point to believe in Mr. Tim and gang.

However, I do think the Mare move was a good one. Now its time for a D-line pick at #25 unless J Stewart is still there.

"I hope more than anything that josh brown tries to put his nose in on a seahawks kickoff return. I would rather see him get destroyed by our returner or a blocker than see us score a touchdown."

That's the spirit of sportsmanship. I've been missing those posts wishing injury on a player who decided to go elsewhere after everyone was cheering him here. A lot of class. Too bad all of it's 4th.

Seahawk44, my guess is it's because Elam didn't go to a "big" conference school, he went to Hawaii. Now Mare, he's a Big East guy (Syracuse), and since Ruskell applies that "logic" to his draft philosophy...

"Comment by RichmondHawk @ 02:51 - Friday, March 28th, 2008 10 for 17.

People are defending this guy? C'mon people those are crap numbers, 59% FG's made.

This move is total reach. Denver and Seattle went hard for this guy because they had no other choice.

Josh brown made 82% and Elam made 87%. Mare was last in the league with the next closest guy being Rackers at 70%. A couple guys has 3-4 attempts but we won't count them."

Ssshh. You can't criticize Ruskell or his decisions here. People still confuse him with a man who died almost 90 years ago, calling him TR. Consider the Fuhrerprinzip mentality you're dealing with here.

Looks to me like the Seahawks just wanted a veteran in camp to push the guy they're planning on drafting on the second day. Mare isn't even close to being the guy he used to be, but he's a vet and can help get the most out of a young guy during camp. I'd be willing to bet we go into camp with Mare, a guy we draft, and an undrafted guy all competing for the spot. And I bet the guy we drafts wins. Just my $.02 worth.

josh brown is a punk, and, apparently, not a prisoner to the businessman.
Whether or not anyone cheered him while he was a hawk means crap... he trashed the hawks on kjr and even said that there's change on the horizon in the NFC west.

DJ Hackett got his panties in a wad for not being offered a new contract before he was up, and made up his mind he was not coming back.... sound familiar? I'll spot you the H....

If your going to throw poop at ruskell, do it because he may fail to lock up the in house talent before they hit the market.... But in my world, most of the ruskell bashing is laughable.

bonesbarry:
"But in my world, most of the ruskell bashing is laughable."

You live in a bizzarro world where down is up, obviously.

TechWorlds:
"Since you seam to think the team sucks so bad why don't you quit watching them? We wont miss you."

Please, dear god this must be a joke. It can't really be this easy...

With or withour Mare, the bigger concern is who the snapper will be. A kicker's accuracy is a mute point if the ball isn't there, ready to be kicked.

One thing I haven't understood about the NFL kicking game...

In today's professional sports age, ,most athletes train year round. They control their diets, and work with specialists to improve strength, conditioning, and skill.

Why aren't there any athelets that have taken the kicking game to the next level? By this, I mean the ability to punt AND kick. Just think if a player came around that could do both well - only taking ONE roster spot!! What a competitive advantage this would give a team - to have a roster spot available for another position.

It's weird how one can be great at kick-offs but suck at long range FGs. Oh well. Mare was the best available FA out there and this was a solid signing.

Ok, time to calm down guys...

Remember what happened when the Patriots lost their "god" of a kicker? They signed one of the Gramatica brothers to compete in camp with a rookie. And guess what? The rookie won.

Now I'm not saying that the Hawks can be directly compared to the Pats, but other teams do this and continue to have success without shelling out top dollars for a KICKER! (Don't bring up choosing not to kick a 48 yd field goal on 4th and 13 in the Super Bowl, that was just a dumb decision/dumb play call)

Ok, so Mare isn't the most accurate from long distances...instead of blaming the kicker, how about you blame the offense who couldn't get closer? I think this will just give Holmgren more of a reason to call a play other than a FB draw on 3rd and long that would just set up a long field goal attempt...heck, we might actually go for a first down now!

The Hawks made a solid offer to JB & he took more money. As for his comments RE change in the NFC west, what do you expect him to say after re-signing with the Rams? "Ya, our D is garbage, our O-Line is next to nothing, Our QB is past his prime" Of course he's gonna talk them up.

I'm hoping for our drafted kicker to beat out Olindo. I'm worried about him kicking anything over 42 yards towards the Hawk's nest side of Qwest field.

ahhh the sky is falling. Most of you dumb fairweather/bandwagon fans dont know jack about football. When was the first time most of knew found out seattle had a football team? 05, maybe? Anyways, the mare signing was a good signing. They signed him to a very low gauranteed money so they can cut him if he gets beat out by the rookie K we sill sign. Man, orisis and others, you are SOO PATHETIC!!

Seafan,

Really? Do you have a link to the actual dollars so that we can see what a "very low guarantee" looks like? I haven't seen any numbers yet. The only thing we've heard is Clayton and he hasn't been the banner boy for getting stuff right this season.

Let's hold off on calling people on the carpet. Many of these fans have been around a very long time and they just simply disagree on this issue (some disagree on every issue but don't say most of us didn't know until 05....).

Cmon everyone step away from the ledge! We had errara and he wanted two much money then we got Norm Johnson, he wanted too much money and we drafted Kasay, he wanted too much money and we drafted Lindel, then we drafted Brown. Kickers are available and we will find one! Mare while not great will be used to go into the draft without reaching for a kicker, and will provide competition in camp. I for one while not happy Josh chose to leave will get over it, the guy could not seem to kick it into the endzone on kickoffs and no matter what no kicker is worth 3 million a year good riddance and we move on. this blog is becoming the whinning center of seattle, I for one am mostly happy with the off season we have had and look forward to the draft and another div. title and playoff season.

""But can he tackle Devin Hester""

We wont have to worry about that. He has the best kickoffs in the HISTORY of the NFL.

Career comparison
Judas Brown
Touchbacks: 37 (not a typo)
Olindo Mare
Touchbacks: 174 (not a typo)

He is also not a choke like Mike vanderja-idon'tknowhowtospellit. Mare has kicked a lot of game winning field goals with the most memorable one being a 53 yard game winning FG for the Dolphins a couple years back against the Broncos in Denver in the SNOW. If he can kick for 80% accuracy in a terrible Dolphins stadium dirt field, he can surely succeed here.

He had an injured hip last year and i'm surprised he was able to kick the ball (if you haven't played soccer with an injured hip, you can't imagine the pain). Even with his ONE poor season, his overall FG percentage remained over 80% meaning he has been above average over his career. Also, three of his misses last year were blocks because of the Saints poor special teams.

IDHAWK, first clayton did say that we signed him for not very much guaranteed money, and second, Ruskell said in an interview with Gasman that the Hawks would sign a K and also draft one, and there would be competition in camp. He said they would most likely cut the one who loses out, so I would conclude that yes, Mare was signed to not much guaranteed money.

Everybody just needs to calm down, losing josh stank but he decided to go, but don't worry we will see him again. I like the idea that we signed a veteran who has had success in this league and we will bring in a young leg to compete for the job, the best man will win and we will be fine. I think we have lost a few of our players but so has everybody else, I believe we have only gotten better this offseason so far.