Steveg Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 The Jets brought in former Giants punter Matt Dodge for a tryout Wednesday. Dodge was a seventh-round pick by the Giants in 2010. After a rocky rookie season, he lost the training-camp competition for the Giants punting job to Steve Weatherford. The Jets elected not to re-sign Weatherford, a free agent, after two seasons with the team. It's not clear the reason for the Jets trying out Dodge; they have brought several players in for tryouts through the season at a variety of positions, including six Tuesday. This is the first specialist the Jets have tried out after choosing T.J. Conley over Chris Bryan in camp. Two weeks ago, special teams coordinator Mike Westhoff indicated he has not been completely satisfied with Conley's performance. "It's up and down. I've seen some excellent punts, some very quality punts that I'd be happy with from anyone," Westhoff said before the Miami game. "And then I've seen some I'm not very happy with. He's a young guy, first year and you see it very often. The inconsistency we were hoping it develops. "The peaks and valleys, what you want is for the valleys to get shorter and shorter. Not to be so deep." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#27TheDominator Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 Wasn't Dodge a draft pick? My cousin the Giants fan with rosey glasses swears the guy is excellent and caught a bad break. He thinks it was a "dead heat" between Dodge and Weatherford and that it wasn't a foregone conclusion they were going with Weatherford. I think he's a decent option. He made a rookie mistake and he was inconsistent (sound familiar Conley?) but he has a big leg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleedin Green Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 Wasn't Dodge a draft pick? My cousin the Giants fan with rosey glasses swears the guy is excellent and caught a bad break. He thinks it was a "dead heat" between Dodge and Weatherford and that it wasn't a foregone conclusion they were going with Weatherford. I think he's a decent option. He made a rookie mistake and he was inconsistent (sound familiar Conley?) but he has a big leg. I think this is just the warning shot to Conley, nothing more. Conley has certainly been incosistent and had some bad moments, but nowhere near as bad as Dodge was last year. While the guy got the most notice for that horrible punt that cost the Giants the game, that was hardly one unique moment, as he was shanking balls left and right all throughout last season, far worse than Conley has done this year. He definitely seemed to be better for the Giants' in this year's preseason, but not enough to beat out Weatherford, so take that for what it's worth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirlancemehlot Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 Wasn't Dodge a draft pick? My cousin the Giants fan with rosey glasses swears the guy is excellent and caught a bad break. He thinks it was a "dead heat" between Dodge and Weatherford and that it wasn't a foregone conclusion they were going with Weatherford. I think he's a decent option. He made a rookie mistake and he was inconsistent (sound familiar Conley?) but he has a big leg. I think you nailed it when you said Dodge has the big leg. That's what Westy has been looking for. He said in the preseason he was looking for someone who could dramatically change field position and Weatherford was more of a direcional guy. Conley was supposed to tilt the field, but at this point, he's actually averaging 3 yards less per punt than Weatherford. Dodge has a rocket of a leg but he worked himself into the dog house his rookie year and that stuck with him. Westy wants the next Lechler. Conley ain't it. But Dodge could be if things fall into place for him. This would be a change I'd like to see since it costs us nothing and is a high reward/low risk proposition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FoxJet Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 HERE THE LIST OF FREE AGENTS IN NO ORDER MY SOURCE IS KFFL.COM 1. JOSH BIDWELL 2. MATT TURK 3 SAM KOCH 4 DAVE ZASTUD 5 MATT TURK 6 NONE OF ABOVE [ MY PICK] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stonehands Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 I am pretty familiar with Dodge. In my mind, he is not an NFL punter. He punts the ball low and driving in order to record decent gross numbers, but leaves himself open for bigger returns. With the Giants last year he miss hit a lot of punts that dropped short and rolled for a nice net punt total. The fact that he was easily beaten out by Weatherford is all you need to know. I think this is to tweak Conley and see how he responds. Now, if Matt Turk comes in to camp, that means a change is coming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stonehands Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 HERE THE LIST OF FREE AGENTS IN NO ORDER 1. JOSH BIDWELL 2. MATT TURK 3 SAM KOCH 4 DAVE ZASTUD 5 MATT TURK 6 NONE OF ABOVE [ MY PICK] Sam Koch is the punter for the Ravens and wouldn't last an hour if he were set free. Dave Zastudil punts for Arizona. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maxman Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 Westhoff is a punter snob. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetsjetsjetss Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 lets grab the safety the bears just released... not a punter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FoxJet Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 lets grab the safety the bears just released... not a punter AMEN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stonehands Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 lets grab the safety the bears just released... not a punter Harris is a definite upgrade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoping4ASuperBowl Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 lets grab the safety the bears just released... not a punter I think his coverage skills are just as good as Eric Smiths. I thought we wanted a coverage safety? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYJets90 Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 Is Tom Tupa available? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloridaJetsFan Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 Tupa's The MAN!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larz Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 motivational purposes I would guess Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVM Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Wasn't Dodge a draft pick? My cousin the Giants fan with rosey glasses swears the guy is excellent and caught a bad break. He thinks it was a "dead heat" between Dodge and Weatherford and that it wasn't a foregone conclusion they were going with Weatherford. I think he's a decent option. He made a rookie mistake and he was inconsistent (sound familiar Conley?) but he has a big leg. Exactly the case. Giants fans were split into two camps on him: the camp that noticed how much he'd improved during the offseason and the camp that didn't forgive him for the Eagles game...not that I can entirely blame them (in retrospect it's a lot like Doug Brien...true their plays "lost" the game, but there were coaching blunders and QB problems that could have prevented either player being in the situation. Doesn't change the bad kicks though). He has an unbelievable leg, and with his improvements the biggest knock on him (and really the only one now) is directional kicking. That's what the Giants fans were up in arms about, that he wasn't very good at it. Who's the best in the business? Westhoff. If Westhoff could get him nailing directional kicks WITH the leg...he'd be an amazing punter. With that said, there's no guarantee he'd get it I suppose...but he's worth a look in a work out at least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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