What Happened to Every 1st Round Kicker?

do kickers deserve to be first-round nfl draft picks this was a question asked by steven sheehan from sportscasting.com back in 2020 well out of 259 picks back in 2021 only one kicker and one punter were even drafted both of which came on day three it would appear that nfl gms don't hold a high value on these positions considering there hasn't been a first round kicker or punter in the last 20 years but it has happened and these very few individuals carried a ton of pressure to be great okay there we go hey hold on let's start to do the math on this this would be 76 yards this wouldn't only be the all-time record the win this would completely shatter it wind is in his face this day there has been five total kickers and punters in the history of the nfl draft taken in the first round we are going to look into each of these five players careers and see how they turned out but before we jump in this video is brought to you by seageek seeky is a company that i've been working with for a long time and they gather tickets from all across the web and put them into one area making buying simple they have everything from football baseball basketball concerts festivals or more and with so many amazing concerts and festivals happening right now you're not going to want to miss out i'm talking the weekend justin bieber tyler the creator john mayer bad bunny and so much more sigi rates every ticket from 0 to 10 to make sure that you're getting a good deal with green meaning good and red meaning bad and for first time buyers use code kto at checkout for 20 off your first purchase make sure to click the link in the description to download the app the very first nfl draft took place in 1936 and for 29 years there wasn't a single kicker or punter selected within the first two rounds however this all changed in 1966 because of one man pete gogolak now pete wasn't a first round pick in fact he was a 12th round afl pick this was back when there were two separate pro leagues the afl and the nfl but to focus on pete he entered the pros in 1964 and immediately changed the game for kickers due to his soccer style kicking this was a style that was unheard of in the world of football at the time pete would go on to become an afl all-star in year two making by far the most field goals of any player he also helped the bills win back-to-back afl championships after that pete made the decision to leave buffalo in pursuit of making the nfl and this incited a quote-unquote war between those two leagues and this became the catalyst of the afl nfl merger agreement that summer i bring all of this up because it leads to pete's brother charlie charlie gogolak also a rare soccer style kicker at the time set seven ncaa kicking records while at princeton and due to the dominance of his brother as well as the hype that charlie had received he ended up being drafted in the first round sixth overall by the washington redskins a truly unprecedented moment in nfl history then during charlie's rookie season he faced off against his brother pete's team and those two combined a total of 14 made extra points which is tied for the most ever wow crazy to think that two kickers really took over the nfl for a brief moment but despite all of this charlie gogolak the first ever kicker to be selected in the first round actually became a bust he did have a solid rookie season but after that he missed almost his entire second year then in year three charlie was one of the worst kickers in the nfl missing all eight attempts from over 40 yards washington would part ways with him after just three seasons charlie would go on to play for the patriots for another three years before retiring his brother pete played almost double the seasons that he did now to move on to the next player on the list seven years after charlie gogolak became the first kicker to ever be drafted in the first round ray guy became the first punter to achieve the same honor he was taken 23rd overall by the raiders i remember when we drafted him with the oakland raiders and we took ray guy number one and everyone said how can you draft a punter number one and we said because he's not only the best punter in the draft he's the best punter that's ever punted a football ray guy had gained a ton of notoriety after his college career due to a 93-yard punt that he had in 1972 as well as being named the mvp as a punter of the 1973 chicago college all-star game a game in which the best college players went up against the current super bowl champions some of you may remember the video i did covering that game but anyways from the start guy went on to make 6 pro bowls in a row becoming well known for his long hang time puns in fact the statistic for hang time was supposedly instituted into the nfl at the time because of rey guy there was also this game in 1977 where the oilers coach bum phillips accused guy of using footballs that were illegally inflated with helium because he had quote never seen anyone hang kickoffs like guy did after that game head coach bum phillips sent the game balls to rice university to be tested of course none of the balls had any issues with them according to pro football hall of fame historia joe horrigan guy is quote the first punder you could look at and say he won games he's given credit in helping the raiders win three super bowls and after his 14-year career was said and done ray guy had become widely considered as the greatest punter of all time and is a member of the hall of fame he also has the award for nation's best college punter named after him so it's safe to say that he's worth the first round pick now going back to kickers 12 years after charlie gogolak became the first kicker drafted in round one steve little joined him in 1978 going 15th overall to the cardinals in college little was both an all-american kicker and punter he tied the ncaa record for a longest field goal which was 67 yards this sent shockwaves throughout the football world this hype along with the fact that he could possibly play both punter and kicker in the pros was why he was drafted so high but this quickly backfired steve little was an abysmal kicker making less than half of his attempts and as a punter he was below average his poor play along with off the field issues led him to being released from the cardinals six games into his third season and tragically hours after he was released steve little was involved in a high-speed single car accident which broke his neck and left him a quadriplegic and after some years in hospice little died at the age of 43. now to go back to when steve little was in college like i said he had tied the record for a longest field goal in ncaa history which had been set just two weeks prior by a man named russell irkslaben irks leben was younger than little and had a similar type college career with both success as a kicker and punter at the university of texas one year after steve little became a first round pick irkslabin also became a first rounder going 11th overall to the saints in 1979. again like little the saints were hoping that irks the ben would become the team's kicker and punter in his first game as a rookie the saints took on the rival falcons and that game ended up going down to the wire entering overtime and after the saints had failed to convert on a third down midway through ot irkslabin came out to punt and this is what happened [Applause] eric slavin picks it up and tries to throw it it's intercepted and has taken him for a touchdown unbelievable the following week irkslaben pulled his hamstring and he went on to miss the rest of the season the following year on opening day irkstabin had a chance to redeem himself with a game-tying field goal at the end of regulation but he missed badly and rather quickly the team moved off of him as their kicker and had irks the bench strictly on punting duty he had received the nickname million dollar kicker due to his first round status and with his struggles as a kicker the fanbase despised him he ended up becoming a top 10 level punter for a few years but he only lasted five seasons in new orleans which ended with him missing a tackle in the 1983 season finale while he laid there cascades of booze rained down from the rafters man fans can be brutal but what's more wild than that was his post football career which became a crime-filled life of ponzi schemes wire fraud money laundering and years in prison so yeah teams began to back away from the idea of selecting these types of players so early in the draft in fact over 20 years went by before we saw this happen again with the 17th choice in the nfl draft 2000 the oakland raiders select sebastian janikowski kicker [Applause] sebastian janikowski had been revered for his powerful kicks in high school he reportedly hit an 82 yarder in practice in college he became a fan favorite by consistently kicking the ball through the uprights on kickoffs something almost no kicker could do at the time after winning the lou groza award twice janikowski clearly had everything you could want in a kicking prospect only one issue janikowski had been in trouble with the law in college which included multiple fights outside of bars and being arrested for attempting to bribe an officer after he was drafted things continued to be an issue janikowski was arrested on drug charges he was eventually acquitted of all these charges but to make matters worse he was one of the lowest ranked kickers as a rookie however things quickly turned around from there sebastian janikowski from 63 kicks on the way it is good he got it wow nfl history tied here in denver sebastian janikowski otherwise known as sea bass played 18 years with the raiders leaving the team as their all-time leading scorer and with a multitude of records including the longest field goal in overtime and the former record holder for longest field goal in general in an era where the raiders were mostly irrelevant with new faces constantly sea bass became an icon amongst the fans to me the legend of the 76 yard field goal attempt has to be the pinnacle of how raiders fans felt at the time the kick wasn't even close but here was what the team was dealing with you had the choice to either trust jamarcus russell to make a play or send out sea bass to attempt an impossible field goal yeah let's go with the field goal but with everything sea bass did in oakland you can still look at his career as a whole and argue he was not worth a first round pick his career field goal percentage was 80.4 this doesn't even rank him in the top 50 all time in fact cody parkey an undrafted kicker who has been made fun of for years has an 84.6 career field goal percentage so even though sebastian janikowski is an icon amongst fans he is not all-time great and certainly not worth a first-round pick the chances of us now seeing a first round kicker or punter is almost certainly not going to happen considering almost every top kicker today was either a late round pick or better yet undrafted this is the guy you want greg if you're in this situation i can't think of a better option this is for an nfl record 66 yards the longest in nfl history if it's good a 66 yard try tucker's kick is on the way it is good crossbar and it tumbles through it is good time has expired justin tucker with the longest field goal in nfl history the hay is in the barn and it's mayhem on the field oh my god you've just history lost my mind [Music] you

Channel: KTO

Views: 640,164

Keywords: what happened, to every, 1st round, kicker, sebastian janikowski, oakland, raiders, gogolak, bills, giants, nfl draft, kto, kto videos, nfl draft videos, punter, ray guy, football

Id: 3n8MisVPvvs

Length: 14min 20sec (860 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 15 2022