Why sebastian janikowski first round pick

Janikowski missed the kick and Kiffin was fired two days later. Over a decade later, Kiffin still had fun poking fun at the moment. Both are extremely impressive totals for a kicker, especially one who entered the league with such high expectations. Adam Vinatieri will almost certainly join those ranks when he retires. Where does that leave Sebastian Janikowski? Janikowski was of on playoff field goals and made all 17 extra-point tries in the postseason.

It seems extremely unlikely that Janikowski is inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame anytime soon. Davis believed in me," Janikowski says, and it is clearly true. In a profession marked by often-irrational change the Titans used four kickers last season alone , it wouldn't have been startling had Janikowski simply flamed out. Davis, though -- perhaps because of vanity, perhaps because of the financial commitment he'd made to Janikowski -- stuck with his guy. Janikowski played 17 seasons with the Raiders and, not coincidentally, had the same holder, Shane Lechler, in 13 of them.

He wasn't the most reliable kicker in the game, but his appearances were memorable. He made a yard field goal in , tying the NFL record at the time. He hit a yard field goal in degree weather in Cleveland, a kick that many say was even more impressive than the yarder. He had just two missed kicks in eight postseason games for the Raiders, compared with 14 made ones -- including one in the Super Bowl in January a loss, he says, "I still think about today".

He holds the league record for kicks made from 50 yards or longer, and in the game played the day after Davis died, he kicked four field goals and scored 13 of the team's 25 points in a victory. It felt fitting.

Never much of a locker room chatterbox, Janikowski was nonetheless revered. When Marquette King replaced Lechler as Janikowski's holder in , he immediately felt it was important to get on Janikowski's good side. To try to ingratiate himself with the kicker, King showed up one day after Janikowski had made an important kick carrying a bunch of giant balloons that he gave to Janikowski as a celebratory gift.

For most of Janikowski's 17 years with the Raiders, the team flopped and flailed its way through seasons of absolute misery. But Janikowski was the constant. He played under 10 different coaches in Oakland, and his arc with the team was total: At the start, he was known for epic nights out with teammates, famously needing stitches in after passing out and cutting his face at a nightclub. By the finish, after a couple of wake-up calls that included a DUI charge and the maturity that comes with marriage and children, he was both a kicker and a living, breathing piece of the Raiders' institutional memory.

I thought it was going to be every year, 'Oh, we're going to the Super Bowl,'" Janikowski says. In some ways, the argument about Janikowski isn't really about him at all; it is about how you feel about the notion that any kicker could ever be considered a first-round success.

After all, however amazing a kicker is, he might be on the field for or so of a team's snaps during any given season; an offensive lineman, by comparison, could participate in eight times that many plays, increasing his value simply by sheer use. Yes, Janikowski was statistically better than Rackers overall, but was he five rounds better?

Or Chad Pennington, who went to the Jets right after him? Or -- and this is definitely unfair -- Tom Brady, who famously lasted until the sixth round himself? What if the Raiders had just stuck with Nedney, who went on to kick quite well in the NFL for 10 more seasons? These are the debates that never end, and in many ways, it couldn't matter less. Davis was happy with the pick, and Amy Trask, who was Oakland's chief executive from to , says there is no doubt that the Raiders, writ large, were more than satisfied.

Janikowski, for his part, has little interest in considering the issue. Two decades on, with a wife and three girls and an aching back that will probably need surgery someday, he just doesn't see the point in worrying about whether he was blessed or cursed when the Raiders took him in the first round. Skip to main content Skip to navigation.

A kicker?! At 17?! Inside one of the weirdest NFL draft picks ever. Las Vegas Raiders. Rams add Beckham Jr. Los Angeles Rams. Superman returns: Cam rejoins QB-thin Panthers.

Carolina Panthers. Seattle Seahawks. Gymnast Lee says she was target of racist attack. Ruggs' lawyers: Witness says firefighting slow. Chicago Bulls. UConn Huskies. Berhalter: U. Odell Beckham Jr. NBA experts: Which early-season surprises are here to stay? Charlotte Hornets. Baylor's Oklahoma test, Purdue's upset chances at Ohio State and more to watch in Week 11's biggest games. Florida State Seminoles. LeBron James among the stars boarding the Paolo Banchero hype train.

Duke Blue Devils. Cam Newton gives Carolina Panthers hope, even if he's no longer 'Superman'. He regressed greatly between his first and second year and eventually ended up as the lowest quarterback on the lowly Seattle Seahawks' roster.

Things hit an all-time low when the Seahawks were forced to draft his replacement, Rick Mirer, in the first round the following year. I would go a little harder on Yatil Green, but the man had terrible misfortune after terrible misfortune from the second he entered the league. On his first day of training camp, Green tore every major ligament in his knee.

The following year, he was ready to make a comeback, and he did the same exact thing to the same exact knee. Needless to say, he was never the same player, nor was he able to make much of an impact at all. One of the fastest ways for a GM to ruin his career is by drafting a Penn State running back in the first round. Four seasons and rushing yards was all that Dozier brought to the Minnesota Vikings. He eventually made it into the major leagues for the New York Mets, but ultimately failed in that endeavor also.

The definition of freak accidents is Percy Snow. This man was taking a little joyride on his moped when he got into an accident. He was never able to fully recover from that accident, and his career ended only three years later. Long's first career pass was a yard touchdown. After that, everything went down the drain. His best career season saw him throw nine more interceptions than touchdowns. Yeah, that is pretty bad. That clearly didn't happen, as Reynolds only recorded three sacks in his entire NFL career.

Tommy Vardell would have had a very fine career had he been drafted later in the first round. It would have been an incredible career had a team waited until the fifth or sixth round to draft him. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, as Vardell went ninth to the Cleveland Browns.

With the ninth pick in the first round, you're looking for a franchise changer, not a solid blocking fullback. Two things that make you a bigger NFL bust than anyone is attitude and lack of work ethic. David Terrell had more of those two things than anyone else in the NFL during his time. Terrell could never make it as a player for the Chicago Bears and failed with two other teams before retiring. He attempted one last comeback in , but was beaten out by Amani Toomer.

This is even more true when only one of those quarterbacks is drafted before you. Unfortunately, Blackledge didn't end up having anywhere nearly as productive a career as those other three quarterbacks. Character issues can derail an NFL career quickly, and Lawrence Phillips had more character issues than career rushing yards that's 1, issues, by the way.

Phillips simply couldn't stay out of the direct eyesight of the law. After only a few years in the league, Phillips found himself in trouble with the law again. He is currently serving a rather lengthy prison sentence.

Simply put, Enis couldn't consistently perform for the Chicago Bears. He ended his career with a mere 1, rushing yards and four career rushing touchdowns.

There are people who enjoy gambling for fun and there are people who enjoy gambling for sport. The problem with being a professional athlete and gambling for sport is that you often find yourself gambling on games that you shouldn't be.