Babin ---> Curb

He clearly has pictures of a team executive in some compromising position.

There’s a comment on that same Times blog entry that says Coutu is injured and Mare’s keeping the spot warm until Coutu’s good to go again. I’d never heard that before, has anyone else heard that? Or have I fallen victim to some rumor-mongering?

But Babin got pushed around and I didn’t see him getting any pressure, while our starting DEs who aren’t “pass rushing specialists” were getting pressure on the QB.

I didn’t see Babin much, but that’s what I saw.

Because Mare’s now been not only punching the ball into the end zone on kickoffs, he’s hit a 51 yarder (which could have been almost 60).

What’s going on?

WTF? I’m still going on faith that Ruskell knows what he’s doing (I’m not a GM, and I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night), but damn these moves are confusing the hell out of me.

Colbert, Robinson = I get it, I agree, I think they’re smart moves
Babin, Forsett, two kickers = WTF??

"I even talked to club president Tim Ruskell about this. They have yet to release Coutu, and sign him to the practice squad, because they do not want to lose him. Coutu is the future at the position. Olindo Mare actually threw a strong right leg into their plans, because the club was hoping Coutu would win the competition. He is younger, was a draft choice and would count less against the salary cap than Mare. But …

So, here they are, with two kickers they like a lot – one is the present, the other is the future. Ruskell said it would take a severe injury situation for them to release one, and the club has arrived at that critical point quicker than anyone could have imagined."

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/football/archives/148512.asp?source=mypi

You can get a good kicker from free agency anytime. Ruskell is being incredibly stupid. Mare is playing great, doesn’t that itself indicate:
1) You can get a good kicker from FA anytime
2) WE ALREADY HAVE A GOOD KICKER!!

This is so ridiculous. Not to mention we could have just given Josh Brown his money anyways, it would have ultimately cost the team less when you factor in a draft pick AND signing Mare AND devoting two roster spots to PK’s.

I don’t know a whole lot about kicking but Coutu seems to be accurate but not have a real big leg. At Georgia he was nailing em from 50+ but has been hurt and may not get there again..? Ultimately it won’t be terrible if Coutu really becomes a great kicker for us for 15 years. Babin and Forsett both looked great in the preseason but I don’t see either unseating the starters ahead of them on this football team and making a real impact. We have Yvenson Bernard on our PS now who probably has more everydown potential (and better hands) than Forsett. We have a hell of a lot of running back in Weaver, Shmitt, Jones, Cukett, and Morris anyways. We have Tapp, Jackson, and Kerney as our top three DE’s and Atkins was a much bigger investment for us than Babin and is still developing. So lets just let things play out.

I am glad that we brought in guys who still have decent upside in McMullen, Colbert, and Robinson. Branch and Engram are both up their in years and injuries so it would be bad news to bring in guys like Horn and Glenn. We might really like how this receiving corps looks a year from now and be able to focus draft picks on QB, T, S, etc. This defense has a core of youngsters on the up (Mebane, Jackson, Tapp, Trufant, Jennings, Tatupu, Hill, Bryant) whose peak is out there in the future. The goal is to get contributors in the o-line and a new qb acclimated over the next couple years so we don’t need a ‘dark age’ between periods of contention.

It is great that Willis is playing well because he was really starting to look like a bust. Spencer has gotten back out on the field and has a chance to turn it around. I think we are protecting Locklear because we committed so much money to him and Willis is playing well.

OK. This article clearly indicates that Coutu’s leg strength (ie kickoff distance) has not improved since recovering from injury and DeHaven doesn’t even expect it to… I doubt DeHaven would say this off-hand (something negative about personnel) without it being inescapable reality.

Absolutely ridiculous. Mare is a great kicker. The only thing worse than having two kickers on the roster is that we will likely start using Coutu at some point this year or next and worsen our already poor S/T. crappppp.