Who will be our starting Punter come Week 1?

[Gonk]

KFFL reports that Stemke is apparently challenging Royals for his starting job. Royals currently has a cyst in his knee, but he is expected to play Friday against the Jaguars. Stemke bombed a bunch of 50+ yarders against the Bucs and was probably the most surprising kid we had out there. If this kid can consistently hit balls like that, I think we've found an answer to our Punter problem. I personally think that Punter is our weakest position on the team, and Royals personally costed us a few games because of our weak field position after his punts. I would like to see Stemke play a few more preseason games, and if he can still put up 50+ yarders, then I think he'll get the starting job.

What do you guys think?

 

[Bobby Humphrey]

Stemke punted 5 times for the raiders in regular games and only had a net of 31.8. (1 inside the 20. )

royals net last year was bad too, 34.5.

i agree 100% that royals needs to be replaced. but i don't know if stemke is the answer. but so far i will say so far so good. at this point i will still go royals, but i hope 3 games later i can say stemke.

 

[FinsGoToGuy]

The main problem about replacing Royals is the fact he's the holder for Mare.

With Perry out and Royals gone, Mare could have a tough season...

But I agree about the fact that Royals must go...sooner than later.

 

[IceStorm]

Punting for 50+ yards is nice, but it's not everything. How is he when we need him to stick a dart inside of the 5 yard line? Royals can't kick it far, but he's got accuracy. Anyone know how accurate Stemke is?

 

[dolphan39]

we need a big leg when we go late in the year to NE and Buffalo, but those 2 games alone do not warrant messing up Mare and forgetting all the nicer weather games we play in

 

[Predaphin]

I hope Stemke gets the job

 

[armed&ready]

If Stemke keeps up this average over the next couple of games he will be a bigger boost to our "Special Teams" than Rogers thus far!

 

[phinphan]

Royals was diabolical last year. You only have to look at our game against the Bills to see how valuable a punter can be. A couple of times we had them backed into a corner, only to see some huge punts getting them out of trouble. Stemke will learn more control, but his leg is obviously incredibly strong. Lets wait and see what he does when the pressure is on (he is expected to perform), but I like what I see so far.

As for the comment bout Royals being the holder for Mare. Well, that seemed to hurt Olindo last year. A few of Olindo's missed field goals came down to poor holds. Hopefully, Olindo works with a few different holders, so I doubt that he would be affected to a large extent