A kick in the pants: Arizona Cardinals favor Dawson

The Arizona Cardinals revealed on Friday that kicker Phil Dawson had won the kicking job for 2018

We’ll wait for the news to come out officially for most players, which according to Arizona Cardinals head coach Steve Wilks, will happen on Saturday.  On Friday he would only confirm the kicking news.

Rookie Matt McCrane revealed on Twitter he was being released, which meant that Phil Dawson was going to be the kicker for the 2019 season.  Wilks confirmed in his press conference on Friday when asked about it.

There are some other rumors out there as to who is going and who is staying but we will not speculate at the moment other than to adjust the predictions for the 53-man roster.  It is a shame McCrane did not win the job.

So if McCrane didn’t win the job, what does it take to replace a Dawson who was subpar in the preseason?  McCrane showed his leg and his accuracy.  Its hard to imagine then what it would have taken to beat Dawson?

I mean, was this strictly a body to push Dawson in camp?  Because if that is the case, Dawson didn’t win and that’s pretty clear to many fans.

So if that’s not it, then why bring in McCrane at all?  Was it so Dawson wouldn’t have to kick full time in the preseason?  Because if that was the case, that is exactly what happened and McCrane still performed better.

Not to take much away from Dawson’s career.  It is easy to go with the vet versus the unknown of McCrane I guess.  But if no young guys are given a chance, how will we ever find new kickers?

Hopefully McCrane will catch on with another team.  He deserves another look.  If no other team claims him, I sure hope the Cardinals do the right thing and add him to the practice squad.