I wonder how much difference goal kicking makes. I'm just thinking aloud here, no conclusions.
Moses kicks 64% for his career, which is about as bad as you can get for a regular kicker. 80% might be the benchmark, but it's a high one - very few players have ever kicked 80% for a single season. So let's say 75% is a more realistic expectation.
What this means is that Moses is missing one goal in 10 that a first-rate kicker would get. Let's say a decent team is getting five shots a game (the Tigers averaged almost exactly 20 points a game in 2016), at which point having a Moses-level kicker is costing exactly one kick every two games relative to the 75% kicker - or one point a game.
I'm not sure what all this means, except to say that even if Rankin was a 75% kicker and Moses can't improve on 64% it's certainly not cut and dried that it's worth running out a dud winger just to improve the goal kicking to the tune of a success every other week.
Pretty sure it would have meant a finals berth this year, instead of being disappointed. It was painful watching Moses missing a few shots whilst the game slipped away, particularly as he kept on making the same error..
I think Rankin would have landed at least one of those shots late in the game against the Titans. I was in line with Moses when he took the penalty shot that would have put us in front, and the way the ball hooked to the right was painful to watch. He never looked like kicking it when he was lining it up. Rankin isn't a great goal kicker by any means, but he is significantly better than Moses. And that's why i think he'll be on the wing come round 1\. Unless Moses improves.