Round 4 • Pick 10 (112) • K Chad Ryland

[Mugsy’s Walk-Off Bunt]

Patriots.com's Evan Lazar weighs in:

The Patriots are the first team since the Raiders in 2000 to draft a punter and kicker in the same draft. It's not surprising to see the Pats select a kicker. After the 49ers selected Shrine Bowl MVP Jake Moody at the end of the third round, New England traded up in the fourth round to take the second-best kicker in the class. Ryland has a huge leg, hitting over 60 percent of his kicks from 50-plus yards, and is a kickoff specialist. He also has experience kicking in bad weather. If you want, you can take this as an indictment, but Ryland is my favorite pick in the fourth round.

 

[Seels]

I have my issues with the draft but like this pick, even the trade up for it. 3rd day picks are fungible, they need an answer at K and P. I was actually hoping they took one a year or two ago, but this works.

 

[OldeBeanTowne]

The Patriots have needed a long term answer at K since Gostkowski left. After San Francisco did what they did, it forced the Patriots to react to ensure they were able to get probably the only other draftable K on their board.

The people who are poo pooing the Teams selections, I don't believe appreciate the value of having reliable, preferably cheap, effective Special Teams kicking operations. The fact that the Pats got to watch the two players they drafted work together during Senior Bowl probably helped with their decision.

Sun Chronicle

 

[DennyDoyle'sBoil]

The cap cost of rookies (outside the first round) who do not make the team are a little difficult to calculate, but if Ryland does make the team, his cap cost should be around $850,000.

That means $1.35 million in cap savings. That’s not nothing. This was a perfect storm given Folk’s contract situation and the cap savings to cut him. Getting a rookie player in to replace a guy who gives you a cap savings to cut makes a player extra valuable. The stars don’t usually align like that. I agree that once SF did what they did, this became a priority for the Patriots.

$1.35 million in cap is not bad for a fourth round pick, especially if you also get a player. If he doesn’t make the team, I think the extra cap cost is around $267,000. So, some downside but not much.

 

[joe dokes]

Glob story on Ryland. Seems like nails as a FG-maker, but this sort of worries me:

Ryland did kickoffs in each of his last four seasons. In 2021 at EMU, he kicked a touchback on 54 percent (39 of 72) and in 2022 at Maryland it was 69 percent (47 of 68).

He's improved over time, and I suppose he'll get stronger on an NFL program, but those numbers seem low, especially since kickoff depth was a giant issue in '22.

Why Patriots kicker Chad Ryland is a perfect fit in New England (bostonglobe.com)

 

[Squeteague]

NE had a touchback percentage of 42.06% in 2021, and 36.47% in 2022, good for 30th place, hard to do worse than that.

 

[mwonow]

Is this as big a deal with the new kickoff rules? Honest question, I don't understand the impact well enough to say. There seems to have been some chatter to the effect that kickers would be looking to have higher-arcing kickoffs land at the 10 or so. Not sure if Ryland has that club in his bag, or even if it's true. Does anyone (@IdiotKicker? Anyone else?) know the answer(s)?