Tennessee has had the good fortune to have some quality kickers over the years. It won’t be an easy job to select one of them as the kicker for our all-time Tennessee team. The contestants are:
Al Del Greco (1997-2000) — He holds the franchise’s single-season scoring record with 136 points in 1998 and career scoring record of 1,060 points. Al played in the NFL for 17 years before retiring after the 2000 season.
Joe Nedney (2001-2002) — Unfortunately, he’ll be best remembered for the two seasons he didn’t play. Nedney was lost for the season with injuries in both 2003 and 2004, then was one of the casualties in the great salary cap purge of 2005.
Gary Anderson (2003-2004) — He was a four-time Pro Bowler before twice coming out of retirement to replace Nedney. Gary will always have a special place in the hearts and minds of Titans fans for his playoff game-winning field goal against the Ratbirds. It was from 46 yards, his longest of the season, and barely made it over the crossbar.
Rob Bironas (2005-present) — He’s the only kicker who’s been a Pro Bowler and first-team All-Pro in Tennessee. Bironas also set a NFL record with his 8-for-8 performance in Houston last year. He’ll always be remembered for his 60-yard game winner against the Colts, the longest field goal in franchise history.
This wouldn’t be complete without recognizing the contributions of Craig Hentrich, who’s already on our all-time Tennessee team as the punter. As the backup kicker, Hentrich handled the kickoff duties in Del Greco’s last three years and in Anderson’s two seasons, as well as attempting long field goals considered to be outside of their range.
This could be another tough one to decide. What are your thoughts?
| Year | Kicker | FGM/A | Pct | Lng | XPM/A | Pct | KO | Avg | TB |
| 1997 | Del Greco | 27/35 | 77.1 | 52 | 32/32 | 100.0 | 78 | 60.5 | 4 |
| 1998 | Del Greco | 36/39 | 92.3 | 48 | 28/28 | 100.0 | 1 | 67.0 | 0 |
| 1999 | Del Greco | 21/25 | 84.0 | 50 | 43/43 | 100.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2000 | Del Greco | 27/33 | 81.8 | 50 | 37/38 | 97.4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2001 | Nedney | 20/28 | 71.4 | 51 | 34/35 | 97.1 | 72 | 62.5 | 12 |
| 2002 | Nedney | 25/31 | 80.6 | 53 | 36/36 | 100.0 | 84 | 64.0 | 9 |
| 2003 | Anderson | 27/31 | 87.1 | 43 | 42/42 | 100.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2004 | Anderson | 17/22 | 77.3 | 45 | 37/37 | 100.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2005 | Bironas | 23/29 | 79.3 | 53 | 30/32 | 93.8 | 71 | 64.2 | 11 |
| 2006 | Bironas | 22/28 | 78.6 | 60 | 32/32 | 100.0 | 70 | 62.2 | 10 |
| 2007 | Bironas | 35/39 | 89.7 | 56 | 28/28 | 100.0 | 75 | 67.6 | 16 |
Here’s a summary of their stats in Tennessee:
| Kicker | FGM/A | Pct | Lng | XPM/A | Pct | KO | Avg | TB |
| Del Greco | 111/132 | 84.1 | 52 | 140/141 | 99.3 | 79 | 60.6 | 4 |
| Nedney | 45/59 | 76.3 | 53 | 70/71 | 98.6 | 156 | 63.3 | 21 |
| Anderson | 44/53 | 83.0 | 45 | 79/79 | 100.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bironas | 80/96 | 83.3 | 60 | 90/92 | 97.8 | 216 | 64.7 | 37 |
In our last poll, Cortland Finnegan won by a narrow margin over Donald Mitchell as the nickel back on our team.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
