Changes A-Foot in the NFC East

[BrudLee]

If I were to ask any of you who the "game-changing" kickers in the league were, you likely wouldn't say many names before reaching David Akers of the rightly maligned Eagles. Akers missed last week's game, and most of the game before that one, and the Eagles looked not-so-coincidentally vulnerable in both.

Sportstalk 950 and Comcast CN8 (Philadelphia) are reporting that Akers' agent claims his client will be out 8-10 weeks with his hamstring tear. This is a big f'ing deal for several reasons:

1. No Akers - Todd France is, I'm sure, a nice boy, but kickers like Akers are rare.
2. The Eagles will have to keep Akers on their 53-man roster or put him on IR. If he's on the roster, that's one less player (sorry, Darnerian). If he's on IR, he ain't coming back this year.
3. If he (presumably) stays on the roster, he'll be returning from his hamstring problem in the dead of winter - just when hamstrings get a little tighter.

I have a rule of not rooting for injuries. Actually, I don't, but I wouldn't root for this one. Still, in a division race that looks a little tighter than expected, it is worth noting when the lead dog stumbles.

[BigSKINBauer]

big deal, akers is one of the best kickers in the NFL and this is a blow. I just don't understand why akers after being hurt was on the field that day when he reinjured himself. The eagles had a back up kicker on their roster but didn't even activate him that week, if they were to lose the raiders game because of the kicker it would not be due to bad luck as much as it would be to plain stupidity.......o yeah continuing to throw the ball after you have a 13 point lead late in the 4th with a banged up QB can have similar results

[saden1]

Yeah but they still keep winning!!! I wouldn't put stock in the value of Akers until they start losing games *crossing fingers*.

[Warpath]

Yea who cares about noting Akers absence. They haven't seemed to mind winning in his absence. Kickers do win games, just not all the time. If their Offense puts up 6 points after 6 points the 1s and 3s they arent getting won't really matter. Todd Franz or whatever his name is will probably still make the extra points and at least half of the field goal attempts so Id say losing Akers for 2 or 3 or 10 weeks won't guarantee a losing record in Philly. I strongly dislike Philly and their fans, and will root for injuries to all of them including McNabb, but there sure doesnt seem to be any stopping them. Go Skins!

[MTK]

This is going to haunt them in at least one or two games, mark it down.

[FRPLG]

Losing a premier kicker for a guy that no one has even heard of hurts plain and simple. Unless they can continue to put up 35-40 a game this costs them a game somewhere and maybe more. What makes this so fun for us to talk about is the fact that they basically caused this by having him kick when he was already significantly hurt. And what's even better is that I would imagine that this kind of injury could be one that drags on and never fully heals until he gets like 6-7 months off. We're not talking about a position player where they an come back before their injury is 100% healed becasue they can compensate somehow. If a kicker's leg is hurt then he is less effective no matter what.
Seems the Eagles callousness towards their players is showing it's negative side.

[jacobyfan]

You remember when the cowboys were really good and they always had rent-a-kickers? They'd bang a couple off the crossbar a year for losses.

[Paintrain]

Am I the only one who remembers 2000? The Redskins went out and spent $143 billion dollars (ok, maybe a little less) but didn't get a kicker as insurance for Brett Conway and it cost them 3 games (vs. the Cardinals, Giants and Eagles) and Norval his job? That team was probably Super Bowl quality (except for their dimestore coach) but they couldn't find a reliable kicker during the season. Ironically, they chose NOT to sign David Akers, who went to Philly and the rest, as they say, is history.