Saints hope for better luck with kicker change this time around

At the end of the January 2007 playoff win over the Eagles, Saints placekicker John Carney was preparing to do a television live interview.

That season, Carney was 23 of 25 in field goals, a sizzling 92 percent. Someone then whispered in the TV reporter’s ear.

“He won’t be here next season,” said the individual.

He certainly wasn’t. New Orleans waived John Carney and signed Olindo Mare’, the Miami Dolphins kicker for a decade. The Saints needed more distance on kickoffs. They got that but they also got only 10 makes on 17 tries before Sean Payton gave Mare’ the boot.

Payton then tried several remedies to the new problem, including drafting Taylor Mehlhaff (remember him?) and signing Martin Grammatica, who was anything but ‘Automatica’ at that point.

Later in 2008, Payton signed Garrett Hartley, who was the cure to a self-inflicted wound.

Which brings us to this week’s not-so-surprising move. The Saints traded Wil Lutz to Denver, handing the job to a rookie. All of 156 pounds, Blake Grupe is a great story. He doesn’t look like a football player but he certainly kicks like one.

At Arkansas State, Grupe departed as the school’s all-time leading scorer and transferred to Notre Dame. Grupe was nothing special for the Irish, making 14 of 19 field goal attempts.

However, Saints special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi, who doubles as assistant head coach, said field goal accuracy in college shouldn’t be a barometer for how a kicker will perform in the NFL. He noted that at New Mexico, Jason Sanders was good on 71 percent of his field goal attempts. With the Dolphins, Sanders is 83 percent on his kicks.

Rizzi noted that Grupe has quickly earned the respect of the entire building.

“It was a pretty cool moment when you watch Alvin Kamara and Michael Thomas and those guys go over and talk to him and congratulate him,” said Rizzi.

Which is great. Let’s hope the good times continue.

However, Grupe’s first regular season kick has yet to happen.

In 1995, the Saints also moved on from a veteran kicker. Twenty-two years later, Morten Andersen was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The Saints cut Andersen after he was 28 of 39 on field goals the previous season.

Andersen, according to the Saints, was losing distance. The 50-yard plus attempts were, they said, problematic.

On December 10th of 1995, Andersen made four field goals in a 19-14 Falcons win over the Saints. Three of those kicks were from 51, 55, and 55 yards. Andersen, by the way, had a career “make” mark of 79.7.

Wil Lutz is a career 84.6. He just turned 29.

In the meantime, it won’t take long to see if the Saints faith in Grupe is justified. You just know the opener against Tennessee is coming down to a field goal attempt by the rookie.

Dennis Allen will either look very prescient… or else.