Little tape but big opportunities when scouting Saints kicker
This time of year, teams face many similar opponents. Division games make up the back half of the year, and it’s not uncommon to face a team multiple times in a short span. But even then, changes can still occur. That’s the balance Panthers special teams coordinator Tracy Smith is dealing with this week as he game plans for the New Orleans Saints on special teams.
“There’s a comfort level for sure playing them so frequently,” Smith said Thursday. “That happens on division games if you get them, almost back to back, or within the case of a month and a half.
“The Saints are essentially the same team now. There are some differences. Playing with a new kicker, as you saw, than we played last time.”
The new kicker is Charlie Smyth, an Irish product that came through the International Player Pathway Program and has been with the Saints for two years. But he has only kicked in two games. His first saw him knock through a 50-plus yard field goal and successfully convert an onside kick. In his second game, he went 1-2 on field goals.
Smyth has also been handling kickoffs, where much of the scouting is done, but with only two games from which to draw, Tracy Smith has gotten creative.
“I did not watch his Gaelic football highlights this year,” Smith joked. It’s not an unheard of tactic, considering Smyth played goalkeeper in the sport, the position that kicks the ball back into play.
“That’s the guys that had the most success,” Smith explained, “and Charlie’s one of the younger guys that has been in the program, to actually make it through. So, he was kind of highly recruited at the time that he was coming out because of his age and his prior status.”