Jason Sanders – May 11, 2018
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Friday, May 11, 2018
Kicker Jason Sanders
(You’re the kicker that was drafted. K Cody Parkey left. Do you feel that the job is yours to lose or how do you approach this opportunity?) – “It’s an open competition, I believe. It all comes down to who comes out there and makes their kicks, who kicks farthest, and at the end of the day, who’s the most accurate. For me, it’s just a day-by-day process. I can’t look at the next day. I’ve just got to focus on the first day.”
(How much of a badge of honor is it that you were one of only two kickers taken in the draft?) – “It feels pretty good. It’s definitely a confidence booster of what the Miami Dolphins think of me. With that, I feel like I bring a lot of confidence into coming here. You always want to play for a team that really wants you. I feel pretty good coming in here for the first day.”
(A lot of humidity in New Mexico?) – “No. (laughter)”
(What was your impression getting off the plane?) – “Well I’m originally from Orange County, California, so it’s not a cold place either. It’s hot. The only thing different here (is) you get the humidity. With that, it’s just the only difference. Everywhere you go it’s going to be hot.”
(What can you recall about how good you were – how accurate you were – on the day Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi worked you out in Albuquerque?) – “Personally, I didn’t think I did great. I did good. I showed a lot of good things; but I still missed one or two kicks that I think could’ve easily been makes. I did good, not great.”
(Obviously your percentage excellent career-wise 50 and over. You’d probably say it could be better in general, “My field goal percentage accuracy in general.” Has Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi told you anything specifically yet, mechanically, that he thinks he can fix or improve to maybe boost that percentage?) – “Not yet. Like I said, it’s my second day. (laughter) We’re just getting into it right now. I’m sure eventually it’ll all come down; it’ll all come together. But right now, it’s just the second day we’re here.”
(And Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi essentially told you what on draft day after they picked you?) – “He’s excited. They all said they’re excited to have me in, and I was excited, too.”
(Can you give us some insight into the strength of your leg?) – “I feel like I have one of the strongest legs coming out of the draft. I’ve got one of the strongest legs. People say it’s the altitude in New Mexico, ‘You’ve got altitude,’ but we go to Texas A&M at sea level, Tulsa, New Jersey and I was still kicking touchbacks. The altitude wasn’t the issue.”
(Was it rare that kicks were returned against you, kickoffs were returned against you?) – “I think there was a total of 22 maybe my last two years that were returned.”
(Out of how many?) – “100-something.”
(132) – (laughter)
(And what’s the longest kick in that altitude you’ve been able to make whether it’s in practice or…?) – “Practice? 70 (yards). A live scrimmage, 60 (yards). And then in a game, 53 (yards).”
(Kickoffs are not necessarily something that people focus on when they’re looking at kickers. How much pride did you take in the fact that you had such a high touchback percentage?) – “I think the touchback percentage gets you in the door. I think if they see the leg strength, they know he’s going to have it. They always say you can teach somebody to kick it straight, but you can’t teach someone to kick it out of the end zone.”
(How do you explain 25 out of 35 on field goals? I know you didn’t have a ton of attempts, but the percentage kind of jumps out.) – “You can look at a factor of things. I don’t want to blame anybody but myself. There’s a lot of kicks that I wanted back, but there’s a lot of things that go into it. You’ve got the snap, the hold, wind and just different factors that all play into things. But a majority of my kicks were all on me and there’s nothing to say about that.”
(What do you make of the debate over whether kickoffs should be part of football? I’d suspect you’d say you’re in favor of keeping it in the game.) – “Yes, of course. I would love to keep it. (laughter)”
(Do you often think back to the idea that you basically wound up kicking in high school because your brother had kicked for the team and the coach wanted to take a look at you because you played soccer and how crazy that’s led to where you are now?) – “Yes, I think a couple months ago I think I was pretty shocked of how everything fell in together. To see where I am now, I think it’s pretty crazy to think about. My freshman year of high school, I didn’t even want to play football. I got forced into it. I told my parents, I said, ‘The coach wants me to play and I said no.’ And then they were like, ‘You should give it a shot.’ And then I gave it a shot and then we went from there. I think the whole process of how I got to this position is pretty crazy to think about.”
(What ultimately convinced you to go ahead…?) – “I think my brother. My brother was a big kicker for the high school. He found success. I was a big soccer guy growing up, so I didn’t really want to do the change. I saw how successful he could be so I kind of gave it a shot and didn’t really get serious until junior year.”
