Titans have first real kicker competition
“I got a sign on my locker too,” Bironas said with a smile.
Whether either is still around and kicking when the season opens Sept. 11 at Pittsburgh remains to be seen. But Kimrin, from NFL Europe, and Bironas of the Arena Football League are part of the first kicker competition for the Titans since they relocated to Tennessee.
The Titans came to the state with Al Del Greco who lasted through the 2000 season. Then Joe Nedney took over until injuries knocked him out of both the 2003 and 2004 seasons, forcing Tennessee to lure veteran Gary Anderson out of retirement.
With punter Craig Hentrich going into his 12th season and coming off an emergency appendectomy, the Titans want their new kicker to handle kickoffs to allow Hentrich to concentrate on his punting.
“The last few seasons have been pretty tough,” Hentrich said. “We’ve got two guys in now that are pretty strong. It’ll be a fun battle to watch them. They’ve been in minicamps before and know about the competition, so I’m just rooting them both on.”
Both Kimrin and Bironas have very strong legs and were drawn to the Titans because the top kicking job is open. For a change, each gets a chance to be more than a camp leg whose purpose is to keep the starting kicker from getting too tired.
This is the fourth NFL stop for both.
Kimrin, 33, of Malmo, Sweden, has a 65-yard field goal to his credit in an exhibition for Denver in 2002 that didn’t help him win the job because the Broncos had veteran Jason Elam. The 6-foot-3, 230-pounder believed to be only the second Swede ever to play in the NFL spent three years in NFL Europe with stints in camp with Dallas in 2003 and Washington in 2004. He went 6-of-10 for the Redskins last season as an injury replacement for John Hall.
Bironas, 27, was in camp with Green Bay in 2002 and with Tampa Bay in 2003, and some felt he should have edged out Jeff Reed in Pittsburgh last season. He played one season in Af2 and two in the Arena Football League, including 17-of-40 field goals for the Carolina Cobras in 2004.
“You know they’re going to keep one and not keep the other,” said Bironas, whose family lives a three-hour drive away in Louisville, Ky. “No hard feelings. I don’t think he has any for me. We both know what’s going on here. It’s a professional part of the job.”
Kimrin agrees.
“Competition makes you better I think, so it’s good. You have to be on top every day and try to be 100 percent,” he said.
The Titans are trying to keep the competition as fair as possible. They split work with the first-team field goal unit, and both kick with Hentrich holding and Ken Amato snapping.
“Then the main reason comes down to how they kick under pressure in the games, who can kick the best and if they can handle the pressure,” special teams coach Alan Lowry said.
They had their first chance at kicking off Monday morning in a special teams practice. Only Bironas reached the end zone with a low kick that had no hang time with the rest of the kicks getting close to the 10-yard line.
Kicking off is very important because the last time Nedney handled kickoff duties in 2002, the Titans led the NFL with the opponents’ lowest average start to drives. Opponents started around the 30-yard line with Hentrich kicking off the past two seasons.
“Right now, (they’re) are our best options,” coach Jeff Fisher said.