Kickers
I
expected to see more dissension among the experts at the kicker position,
but the group was pretty much in agreement about the top ten, especially
David Akers, who ran away from the competition with 10 first-place
votes. Martin Gramatica (2nd), Jay Feely (3rd),
and Jason Elam (4th) split the remaining first-place
votes.
There were no surprises among the top 10, but a few experts predicted that a
sleeper will break through. Cannon ranked Rian Lindell sixth, Del
Pilar ranked Jeff Reed seventh, Lawrence ranked John Hall
seventh, Gonos ranked Jeff Chandler tenth, and Norton ranked Doug
Brien tenth. Interestingly, the players in that group are either
kicking for a new team (Lindell, Hall, and Brien) or entering their first
season as a full-time kicker (Reed and
Chandler).