Brad Craddock will get an opportunity to win the kicking job in 2016 for the Cleveland Browns, will he be able to hold off incumbent kicker Tyler Coons?

Going into the offseason not many people mentioned Coons and the kicking game as a problem area on the team, but looking at this upcoming draft class there was one kicker that looked to be the next big thing, his name was Robert Aguayo. Aguayo seemed to be a great option in the fifth to sixth round for the Browns, but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a slightly higher evaluation of Aguayo trading up in the second round to take him. Aguayo was the only kicker worth a draft pick in this class and with him gone it appeared Coons would yet again be kicking for the Browns in 2016, until the undrafted free agents were brought in.

Clearly acknowledging kicker far from being a locked down position, the Browns front office brought in two kickers to try and compete with Coons in 2016. Andrew Baggett was brought on as a camp tryout and Brad Craddock was signed as an undrafted free agent. Baggett will likely not be as big of a threat to Coons as Craddock will be.

Craddock was born in Australia and attended OzPunt which is a developmental program for punters, place kickers, and even place holders. Craddock graduated OzPunt at the top of his class earning him the label of best kicking prospect in Australia. Craddock left Australia after his graduation from the program to join the Maryland Terrapins. Craddock was originally supposed to be a punter for Maryland but ended up getting switched to place kicker for his freshman season. After some struggles in his first season Craddock ended up solidifying himself as one of the best kickers in the country. Under the mentorship of long time Cleveland/Baltimore kicker Matt Stover, Craddock won the Lou Groza award in 2014 as the nations best kicker. Craddock owns the big ten record for most consecutive field goals without a miss with 24, along with the record at the University of Maryland for longest field goal at 57 yards. Craddock finished his 2014 season with a field goal percentage of 94.7. In 2015 Craddock was 8-10 with field goals for the Terrapins, but missed the last three games due to injury.

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During his time at Maryland Craddock never had a field goal attempt or point after try blocked, finishing with 167 unblocked attempts. That stat alone gives Craddock a leg up in the competition over Coons. Craddock has the trajectory that Coons does not which helps getting the ball off even when the line breaks down. Coons is more of a straight line drive kicker which explains why so many kicks got blocked last season.

Craddock not only can put the ball through the uprights with great consistency, but also gets involved in kick coverage as well, giving maximum effort to try and prevent long returns off kickoffs. When Craddock missed the final three games of his senior year it was from a wrist injury after trying to make a diving tackle to prevent a touchdown.

The biggest flaw in Craddock’s game will be on kickoffs as he needs more leg behind the ball to consistently force teams to take a touchback over returning it. It seems unlikely that the lack of kickoff distance will be enough to hold Craddock back since that seems to be one of the only flaws in his game.

Craddock is not just some competition for Coons, but he is THE competition in 2016. After it is all said and done and you look at what Craddock does well with his kick trajectory and the sniper like accuracy from short to intermediate with the ability to hit with some kind of regularity beyond fifty yards. Add in the overall effort Craddock gives, it would be a bit surprising if Craddock is not the kicker for the Cleveland Browns in 2016. Who knows, maybe the Browns found the Australian Phil Dawson in Brad Craddock.

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