Medlock Update with NFL Panthers

[b]Veteran kicker Olindo Mare, who missed a pair of costly late-game field goal attempts last season, is trying to fend off former CFL kicker Justin Medlock to keep his job. Ron Rivera acknowledges it's a little unsettling for a head coach to not know who his kickers will be at this point in the year, but said the competition so far has been excellent at both positions.

Rivera said the team is charting everything at training camp – from warm-up kicks to actual performance during practice. He said both kickers are right around 90 per cent with their field goal accuracy[/b]

http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=402183

Is it evil of me to wish that Medlock is released by the Panthers and returns to the Cats? :twisted:

Nothing against the competent Congi, although Justin is a kicker extraordinaire.

Talk about spoiled. Congi is 6/7 and were wishing we had Money Medlock back :lol:

Is Medlock a legend after just one year in the black and gold? :wink:

I hope that if Medlock does get released he would come back but he may try and catch on elsewhere. He would make us dangerous from anywhere on the field

6/7? let me take Medlock at 7/7 :smiley:

Medlock was booting them consistently from 50+ yards, I don't think we even think about a field goal over 45 yards with Congi. That being said, you have a point about being spoiled. Medlock was an exceptional kicker.

I don't believe Medlock has any obligation to come back to the Cats even if he does come back to the CFL, and there's no guarantee that we'd sign him. We'd be replacing a non-import kicker with an import.

If Medlock does not catch on in the NFL, I suspect the Argos will go after him big time.

My recollection is that he is a FA. He was the one Ticat FA that Obie was trying to sign but he wanted to try his luck in the NFL one last time.

Fans are not happy with Mare.

[url=http://www.cbssports.com/general/blog/nfl-rapidreports/19688044/carolina-panthers-training-camp-notebook-first-weekend]http://www.cbssports.com/general/blog/n ... st-weekend[/url]

Kicking competition gets interesting: Veteran K Olindo Mare was booed by the crowd after missing a 42-yard field goal in Saturday's practice. Mare's last-second miss cost the team a win over Minnesota last season, and he missed another key fourth-quarter kick in a late-season game against Atlanta. Former CFL K Justin Medlock was accurate in practice and strong on kickoffs. Medlock got the majority of the kicking duties on Sunday.

Apparantly we won the Grey Cup last year with Medlock. :smiley:

[url=http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/players/playerpage/416678/justin-medlock]http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/players/pl ... in-medlock[/url]

Brutal :roll:

Medlock is better than Congi. He's better than most of the CFL kickers. However, as an import he has to be lights out better than a Canadian kicker. I'd be surprised if the Cats replaced Canuck Congi with Medlock.

The Argos are happy with their import PK. He's good from 50 yards out.

An Argo-Cat fan

It's absolutely stunning how clueless the US media is about sports that aren't played here in the US. I'm continuously annoyed with the US press' coverage of things like Soccer, the CFL, even hockey in cities where it's not wildly popular. They're even lazy in covering the US sports with far too much attention given to NYC, the northeast, and the west coast. Ask a casual sports fan and they'd probably have a hard time telling you what sport the Kansas City Royals play.

As for Medlock, if he's pushing Mare, he's got a real shot. Mare's seen better days and he's been doing that gypsy thing kickers do at the end of their careers. Just floating around looking for a job where the starter has become unpopular. Congi's been good, but a deep FG threat is always critical late in games. Thank goodness the Riders didn't have a guy with a huge leg.

Marcus Thigpen is listed as the #1 kick returner on the Dolphins' depth chart for their first pre-season game.

The guy didn’t seem to gung-ho about the CFL on the Panther site,
Quite the self absorbed a hole.

What did Medlock say about the CFL Spinner?
Do you have a link to the article/video?

thx

In this article, Medlock does not exhibit any malicious derision towards the CFL, and in one respect lauds the league for resurrecting his career…

[b]"The CFL is the best thing that ever happened to me. I don't know if I'd be here without that because it got me back on the map," Medlock said. "But it also hurt me in a sense because like there was a time when the 49ers needed a kicker – a lefty. I'm a lefty from the Bay area, but I couldn't sign there because I was in the CFL. That was the wrong place at the wrong time."

His luck could be changing. Medlock was perhaps hours away from signing a three-year contract to continue playing in the CFL when the Panthers - one of only a dozen NFL teams that hadn’t contacted Medlock over the last five years – brought him in for a workout and signed him to compete with incumbent starter Olindo Mare

“It’s crazy. In as little as 24 hours, I probably would have been back in the CFL,” Medlock said. "We were negotiating and were probably within five thousand dollars. To think I was that close to going back to the CFL, that will be something to look back to if I make it in the NFL, because I would have been 31 before I got out of that contract.

“If I make it here, that will be a story.”[/b]

[url=http://www.panthers.com/news/article-2/Matured-Medlock-returns-to-NFL/3e3901de-a0f7-4c1b-992e-1abbaca7e7f9]http://www.panthers.com/news/article-2/ ... bbaca7e7f9[/url]

The only quotes I can find from him on the Panthers site say that the CFL did wonders for his kicking game, allowing him to hone his skills. The only even slightly negative comments were that he missed an opportunity to try out with the 49ers when they were actively looking for a left-footed kicker because he was under contract in the CFL, and that he was glad that he hadn’t signed with, I’m assuming, the Ticats when Carolina contacted him. I take those comments as references to the differences in salaries.

I agree, it's just about the salary differences. Also, some guys won't even play in a city in the same league ie. Eli Manning with the Chargers think it was, and of course Lindros and QC.

Always wondered if the Nords would have left Quebec City had Lindros just signed with the club.

Imagine the dynasty they could have had with such talent such as: Lindros, Sakic, Blake, Forsberg, Kariya, Selanne, Hejduk, Bourque and Roy.

Had the Nordiques won the Cup during the farewell 94-95 season, (instead of the following season in Colorado) dare I say Bettman may have been slightly less enthusiastic about relocating the team due to the unimaginable fan and political uproar.

Montreal would never have traded Roy to Quebec, a team in its own division. Sure, a dumb move by Montreal to trade him at all (thanks, Mario), but they weren’t THAT dumb.