Kickin’ it in Houston
Aug 4, 2007 Chad Stanley, Matt Turk rules, Preview, Special Teams, Training camp 2007
For fans of most teams, a training camp punter battle would be slightly less interesting than Special Olympic tic-tac-toe. (And way less interesting than a cripple fight.)
Most teams, however, haven’t been privy to the Chad Stanley Experience.1
How bad is Chad Stanley? Well, a Google search for “Chad Stanley sucks” turns up the following quotes:
Their current punter Chad Stanley is awful. Gardocki awful. Worse really, if looked at more than just last year. (Author’s note: This is from a Steelers fan.)
Chad Stanley? Yikes. This guy was brutal last year. My guess is he isn’t the only punter on the roster come training camp. They are probably (no, hopefully) searching for his replacement already.
This sucks. I’m sorry, Chad Stanley is now a terrible NFL punter. Hopefully this is something we can address with a late-round pick.
Chad Stanley laid an egg.
Even accepting that disgruntled fans are not the most unbiased observers, these quotes coupled with Stanley ranking 29th in Gross Average Yards and 21st in Net suggest that Captain Shank might not be the best man for the job.
Enter Matt Turk. The same Matt Turk who ranked 18th in Gross and 9th in Net last year in St. Louis. Yeah, you could say I’m excited.
Dale Robertson sums up just what Matt Turk could bring to our table.
The Friday morning workout was for special teams only and the punt team became the primary focus of the session. Veteran punter Matt Turk, brought in to compete with original Texan Chad Stanley, dazzled the attending media with a series of crushing punts, a couple of which looked like they were going to bust through the Methodist bubble top.
Rookie Jacoby Jones tried to field one and wound up shaking his hand in pain.
“He’s a boomer,” special teams coach Joe Marciano said. But he didn’t want to start a controversy, quickly pointing out that Turk and Stanley are very different types of punters and should be judged differently. “Chad doesn’t have any 70-yarders in him,” Marciano conceded, “but he’s been very effective in the 40- to 50-yard range, with hang times of 4.5 to 4.8 (seconds). One of those guys will be punting here this year and other one will be punting for some other team. They’ll both be in the league, I guarantee you that.”
Turk missed the 2005 season with an injury but then became “a gym rat,” Marciano said, and now could pass for a linebacker, he’s so muscular. Asked if he’d ever seen a punter rip into the football like Turk does, Marciano replied, “Yeah, last year, when we played St. Louis (in the preseason).”
Turk was the Rams’ punter.
Compare and contrast that with this TexansTV video of Stanley and Turk going head-to-head. Maybe I am just being overly optimistic, but quotes like “we thought it was important to push Chad” and “Matt is a power guy…explodes into the ball” seem to bode well for a Stanley-less future.
Thanks for the memories, Chad. We’ll keep in touch. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, dude.
1For the uninitiated, watching Stanley has been roughly as painful as a root canal. Performed rectally.
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August 4th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
I thought I would finally leave a comment since I read your blog every day, and really enjoy it. Re: Chad Stanley, I agree that he was uber-subpar last year, but He went to a school near mine in East Texas (people from East Texas are close-knit, by the way), so it is near impossible or me to root against him. Ultimately, I want the best punter to win (I concede the point that it is Turk, more than likely), but it is not easy for me to do. Thanks for you witticisms.
-D.P.
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August 4th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
I understand the loyalty. In fact, the main reason I am pulling for Jamar Fletcher is because he’s from Missouri and is a Big Ten guy. As long as loyalty doesn’t turn into actively rooting against a better player, I see nothing wrong with it.
Thanks for commenting (and reading).