Shayne Graham Nearing a Deal with the Baltimore Ravens
by Josh Kirkendall on Jun 1, 2010 1:25 PM EDT
in Contracts
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PrintIt was once a scary thought that the Bengals would bring Shayne Graham back. While it was never an open discussion belief within the franchise, the door to bring Graham back wasn't slammed shut. In mid-February, it was reported that the Bengals had planned on having discussions with Graham and his agent about coming back. The seriousness of this discussion wasn't known; though we suspected Graham's return was based mostly on late-preseason developments of injured or ineffective kickers.
Once Mike Nugent was signed, Marvin Lewis all but said that we shouldn't expect his return.
When asked about Shayne Graham, head coach Marvin Lewis all but closed the door on any return for Graham. "Shane is a free agent football player. We have to move ahead. I cannot determine what is in Shane’s future, or speak for his representation. We are going to get ready to play football based on the way our football team is put together at this point."
Late last month, it was being reported that the Baltimore Ravens were interested. And it's moved on beyond just interest. The Baltimore Sun's Jamison Hensley confirms an ESPN report that a deal for Shayne Graham is nearing.
Graham, 32, the fourth-most accurate kicker in NFL history, will compete against Billy Cundiff to be the Ravens’ kicker this season, but Graham’s experience likely gives him the edge.
This move has been anticipated for months. Graham met with Ravens officials at the NFL owners meetings in late March.
I always liked Graham for his community work and he was a pretty accurate kicker... most of the time. The times that he wasn't accurate tends to resonate with fans, as several had post-season implications.
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This is actually good news
We get to watch him choke clutch kicks from a distance.
RIP Bryan S. You will be missed.
Actually this is very good news.
Graham was accurate, but never able to make a kick with the season on the line.
Picture this scenario, Bengals up 14-13 on the Ravens, week 17 with :30 seconds left. If Graham hits this kick, The Ravens take the AFC North, and the bye. If he misses the Bengals get the bye. …I like our chances
+1
And thats when the wind is on his back..
by 80%OFTHETIMEIMRIGHTEVERYTIME on Jun 1, 2010 9:30 PM EDT up reply actions
He had his opportunity to man up a few times ...
Put. That gatorade. Down. Gatorade’s for closers only. You think I’m f**king with you? I am not f**king with you. I’m here from downtown. I’m here from Mike and Katie. And I’m here on a mission of mercy. Your name’s Graham? You call yourself a kicker you son of a bitch?
There once was a kicker named Ginger
who forced his coach on a binger
a sure fire shot
in the clutch he was not
his team’s playoff hopes he did injure
by featherman on Jun 1, 2010 2:11 PM EDT reply actions 2 recs
This is good news for the Ravens. He will probably beat out Cundiff. There is a reason Graham is the 4th most accurate kicker in league history.
You have to hate losing more than you love winning.
cmon MaLoR
there’s one of two reasons that Ozzie did this. Light a fire under Cundiff’s arse…. or steal Play Book info.
Graham is one of the bigger choke artists at K possibly ever. You really can’t be that happy with a high% K after watching Steve Haushka blow game ending kicks last season, seriously MaLoR?
3 yards and a pile of dust
Yes seriously. He had an off year, how do you know he won’t come back and go 27 for 30?
And yes, it is a move to bring competition to Cundiff. However, Graham has been of the best kickers in the NFL over the last few years and if he comes in and starts nailing them, he might get the job.
And how are we bringing Haushka into this? Graham is light years passed the kicker that Haushka will ever be.
And steal play book info, seriously Hudepohl Dey?
You have to hate losing more than you love winning.
sure he’ll give you 27 out of 30.
the problem is, the three misses will be when the game (or more importantly, season) is on the line….
That should be a concern.
Yes, your precious Ozzie Newsome signs players to steal playbook info. Why else did he sign a crappy backup TE that the bengals had just cut in Sept-08, only to release him – following a season-opening victory over his former team – two weeks later? (see Nate Lawrie).
Seriously MaLor
3 yards and a pile of dust
Yes, your precious Ozzie Newsome signs players to steal playbook info.
Dude, HE IS A KICKER! What information is he really going to be able to give you. And if that is one of your main reasons for us bringing him in, then you are making a fool of yourself. If your theory holds right, then that means that every single player we have brought in is to steal playbook info? So we brought Stallworth in to steal info from the Browns. We brought Cory Redding in to steal info from the Seahawks (who we don’t even play this year) and we brought Travis Fisher in to steal info from the Rams?
I am concerned about the misses in the playoffs, but you are making it seem like Graham has already won the job. I will worry about all that stuff IF Graham wins. As of right now, this is a competition and Cundiff has the upper hand at this point.
You have to hate losing more than you love winning.
no one’s denying that he’s great high percentage kicker.
knowing our luck, he’ll probably kick us off the field twice year…IF…..he’s a Raven.
dude, your twisting my words:
If your theory holds right, then that means that every single player we have brought in is to steal playbook info?
that is not what I said. I said there are two reasons you sign Graham:
Light a fire under Cundiff’s arse…. or steal Play Book info
you replied:
And steal play book info, seriously Hudepohl Dey?
That’s why i said:
Yes, your precious Ozzie Newsome signs players to steal playbook info.
but per your next reply,
Ozzie saw an opportunity to bring in a guy he was familiar with
you saw an opportunity to praise the Oz…which is understood. but still doesn’t suggest that I think every Raven signing is for playbook info. you can’t tell me that none of them are either, can you? (lemme guess, your gonna post an Ozzie quote here? lmao)
3 yards and a pile of dust
No, I am not going to post an Ozzie quote. I don’t know any off the top of my head that would explain why you think this.
Do teams bring players in for some information about their opponents? Of course they do. Every team does, including my Ravens and your Bengals, but saying that bringing in a Kicker of all players is our way of stealing playbook information about your offense, an aspect that Graham had little to no involvement with is a strange theory to me. If we brought one of your RB, WR or OL I could maybe see your point, but it’s your kicker man.
And do you think this about every team, or just the Ravens? And if so, what has made you come to this conclusion about our off season moves?
You have to hate losing more than you love winning.
i think
you’ve got me all wrong here.
Even your pals over at Beatdown seemed nervous about Graham.
I believe I just read comment on your fanshot over there that resembled (half) my sentiment, "
Hopefully he’s only being brought in to light a fire under Cundiff’s ass
it’s simply not a good signing. If he’s such a good kicker, how does he remain a Free Agent for Six months? As soon as he missed the 23 yard FG in the 4th quarter against the JEts, he was available for the taking.
I see you’ve summoned the masses on me, eh?
3 yards and a pile of dust
We are all skeptical about bringing him in. I am very aware that he choked……big time. And those misses ruined his career. A few months ago we were begging to bring in Neil Rackers over Graham. I won’t even start with our crazy reasons for this. But people do bounce back from terrible situations like that. Am I saying if we sign Graham he is going to come in, kick 90% and make the game winners in the playoffs? No I am not.
Cundiff is not so sure fire either and yes we are bringing Graham in to create competition, more than we are bringing him in to “steal playbook info.” That is basically the only reason I am having this debate with you. I might have twisted your comment around a little, but you truthfully really tried to make it seem like that one of the biggest reasons for bringing Graham in here was to steal playbook info from your offense. That is the only thing I do not get. Everything else about him being a shitty kicker, I understand.
You have to hate losing more than you love winning.
have fun with his kickoffs to the 10 yard line. You might as well add 30-50 yards to the opposing teams offense every game.
This is our year!
If he is only getting to the 10 yard line, then I can guarantee Graham does not make the team. A main reason we got rid of Stover was because we did not want to carry 2 kickers since Stover was unable to kick it far enough kickoffs and field goals. It is either going to be Cundiff or Graham, and which ever one does better on kickoffs and field goals will win the job.
You have to hate losing more than you love winning.
I still don’t know who you think will make the team.
(Graham) will probably beat out Cundiff.
this is a competition and Cundiff has the upper hand at this point.
I"m not pressing you, I’m just curious whether or not we’ll see Graham twice next year.
This is our year!
Where did I say that Graham will beat out Cundiff?
You have to hate losing more than you love winning.
Why else did he sign a crappy backup TE that the bengals had just cut in Sept-08, only to release him – following a season-opening victory over his former team – two weeks later? (see Nate Lawrie).
And the most logical reason for that signing was because we lost one of our back-up TE to injury (Quinn Sypnewski) just prior to opening day that year. We were short on depth and Ozzie saw an opportunity to bring in a guy he was familiar with. I don’t think that stealing playbook info really holds that much merit in the NFL. With how much tape teams have of each other, is a cast off TE who got cut from your team probably because he did not know the playbook well enough to make it really going to be able to help us THAT much. No.
You have to hate losing more than you love winning.
look
i’ll concede the playbook info. fair enough. but you just can’t be that happy with Shayne Graham.
be honest
3 yards and a pile of dust
Does it seem like I am jumping for joy right now? Do you see hundreds of comments over at our site talking about how excited we are? Hell, the first comment on that fan shot was “damn ginger.” Lol. We wanted to bring in someone to compete with Cundiff, and Graham is clearly the best kicker out on the market right now.
You have to hate losing more than you love winning.
alrighty maLoR
wasn’t trynna jump your case.
your first comment led me to believe, that you might in fact be jumping for joy…. maybe a short hop, i don’t know, lmao
This is good news for the Ravens.
kicker is a big concern for both of us this year. Looks like the Bengals are gonna take a huge risk, we’ll see
3 yards and a pile of dust
Glad we settled it. I say it is good news for us because one of our main goals for this off season was to bring in a guy to compete with Cundiff. And like I said, Graham is clearly the best option out there right now.
Graham has had a great career aside from the playoff game last year. So it is exciting to bring in a guy who could potentially turn around his game and become one of the league’s best kickers again……….or he could absolutely be terrible during training camp and pre-season and gets shipped right back onto the market.
You have to hate losing more than you love winning.
yea, how has no one else said anything here?
Graham has had opportunities to “bounce back” before.. I freakin hate this guy. He’s a kicker! Football teams and players hate to lose games because one guy who plays a few mins a game cant do his damn job!
I hope the Ravens do sign him.. Then we can watch our special teams run his ass over all day as payback.
by 80%OFTHETIMEIMRIGHTEVERYTIME on Jun 1, 2010 9:40 PM EDT up reply actions
this is the thing
you aren’t going to sign a kicker for the money they’re going to give graham and not make him a starter. he’ll beat out cundiff. but look back to the denver game in 06, the eagles tie in 08, cleveland and the jets last year. the guy does not have ice in his veins. misses the big kicks.
RIP Slim.
I think letting Graham go was a mistake
I would have no toruble believing that he can go to Baltimore and do very well. Sometimes a change of scenery can do that. I don’t mind so much that he won’t be kicking for us but I hate to see him in the division. Kicking, like golf is mostly mental and Shane will be highly motivated to shove it right up Marvin and Mike B.’s goaposts. He is better than anyone they have IMO and possibly better than anyone we have. Anyway you look at it this is not good news IMO.
"If we always agree, one of us is not necessary"
John, you are slowly but surely becoming a Ravens fan. It’s cute.
You have to hate losing more than you love winning.
I don't think so MaLor. I bleed orange and black.
"If we always agree, one of us is not necessary"
So is a Bengal going to go to jail for cutting you?
You have to hate losing more than you love winning.
Really???
Let me get this right, A Ravens fan is making a stabbing joke about one of OUR players on OUR site?
I’m a big fan of irony, but c’mon man.
you have to look at the other side of the coin as well though
kicking is, as you said, mostly mental and with him missing so many clutch FGs I could see him choking, especially against his former team. it’s the principle of if you try too hard to achieve something, you can end up getting the opposite result.
RIP Slim.
F the Ravens..
And screw suga Shayne.. WHO DEY!!!
by quickslant on Jun 1, 2010 9:05 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
On the one hand, don't let the door hit your
a*s on the way out, choke-meister!
On the other, the last time this happened Rackers went to Arizona and became a Pro Bowler, when he was “Neil Shankers” in Cincy. Maybe it’s the water?
by occams_tiger_teeth on Jun 1, 2010 10:01 PM EDT reply actions
Shane's a good kicker.
I mean, the stats don’t lie. The problem is, he’s the definition of a choke-artist. There’s a good chance he’ll go somewhere else and get over it and have a very successful career. I’ll be rooting for him to do just that – unless he’s in Baltimore of course.
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