Countdown To Camp: Gano vs Rackers

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Training camp starts in a few days, marking the third year of the Shanahan era. With each new training camp comes a new batch of questions regarding the team.  As training camp approaches, we will examine some of these questions.

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Will Rackers Oust Gano?

In 2011, Mike Shanahan brought former Pro-Bowler Shayne Graham to training camp in order to give Graham Gano some competition.  Shanahan was hoping that having a veteran kicker pushing his younger one would help strengthen Gano's character.  (or it was a test to see if Gano should even be the kicker).

That experiment by Shanahan failed miserably.  Shayne Graham would have possibly lost the kicker job to a regular position player by the way he kicked, shanking preseason field goals and being cut soon after.

This year, Shanahan is up to his old tricks.  This time the kicker is Neil Rackers, fantasy football super-hero, former Pro-Bowler, and finalist for NFL's sexiest man a few years back.  While Graham kicked 6 field goals for 2 different teams last season, Rackers was the Texans main man hitting 32 of 38.

Rackers is an upgrade from Shayne Graham, although he is also on the down side of his career.  He is a pretty accurate kicker and he still has the leg to kick 50 yarders.  But so Does Gano.

The job is Gano's to lose, and if he thinks it will be anything like last year he is very wrong.  This could be the most interesting position battle of camp...

Rackers Joins The Skins, Is Gano Out?

The Redskins signed Neil Rackers (2006 finalist for Fox Sports sexiest NFL player) on Tuesday to compete with Graham Gano who had recently undergone back surgery.  Rackers played the last one and a half years for the Houston Texans where he made 87% of field goals he attempted.

In the final game of the season last year, Graham Gano fractured two bones in his lower back after a missed tackle (Wash Post).  However, Gano is supposed to be ready to go for OTAs.  Shanahan likes to have some kicking competition in training camp which was evidenced last year when he signed Shane Graham in the offseason in.  Gano ended up beating out Graham for the job (well Shane kinda just sucked).

Rackers will probably give Gano a little bit more of a push than Graham did.  At one point in time Rackers was the best kicker in the game, and a fantasy killer.  That was back in 2005 when he hit 40/42 FG including six 50 yarders.  However, despite Rackers' numbers dropping (80% career), they are still better than Gano (74% career).

Although Graham Gano does hold the record for longest field goal in Washington Redskins history...He had 4 50+ yarders last year (same as Rackers).  Rackers also played for Houston who plays in a dome-ish stadium.  This looks like advantage Rackers...

The kicking job should be an interesting one to watch this offseason.  Shanny seems to like Gano because he is young with a strong leg, but Rackers is a proven vet.  It will surely be a relief to be watching Gano vs Rackers instead of Rex vs Beck.