MVN - Most Valuable Network

Broncos Interested In Vanderjagt

The Denver Post reports that former Colts and Cowboys kicker Mike Vanderjagt will be or already has worked out for the Broncos today.

Denver desperately needs a kicker with only Matt Prater, a man who has made just one career kick in four opportunities, on the roster right now. That obviously won’t cut it, and with an incredibly weak draft class for kickers, they need to bring a veteran in.

While Vanderjagt is the most accurate kicker in NFL history, he struggled mightily in Dallas before being released mid-season in 2006 and was unable to find a job last year. Some blame it on a foot injury, but really, he just looked like he had lost it for whatever reason.

Plus, he’s known for having an attitude problem, especially in Indianapolis when he criticized both Peyton Manning and Tony Dungy. Yup, a kicker telling one of the best quarterbacks and coaches in the game to do better. That’s not going to get you many jobs.

With their bad situation, signing Vanderjagt wouldn’t be a bad move. I doubt he’d command a huge, outrageous contract like he did when he went to Dallas. All of those good years with the Colts weren’t a big fluke, and it’s possible that he can return to his old form.

John Carney is another possibility, but he’s very old, and unable to hit from long distances on a consistent basis.

The team also watched Mitch Berger today, a decent punter. They’re also expected to see if Mike Barr can come in and also compete with current starter Sam Paulescu.

While it’s one of the least thought about positions in the game until teams actually need them to step up, the Broncos are having some trouble with special teams in the two skills positions. Hopefully for their sake, they can at least get an upgrade at kicker right now, or they could end up losing one of two additional games because of it.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 5:52 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.