Wayne Walker

[Halas Hall]

I nominated former Detroit Lions linebacker to the Hall of Very Good this year. He also handled placekicking duties for the Lions, but only made around 40% of his career field goal attempts (53/131). I know roster spots are valuable, but why did the Lions continue to have WW kick field goals? Why not hire a kicking specialist?

Thank you.
Nick

[Bryan]

I've thought the same thing. The Lions brought in Garo Yepremian, who had a good rookie season, then fell off his second year and the Lions probably gave up on Yepremian too quickly. At this same time, the Lions also had Lem Barney performing the punting duties, and Barney was about as good as a punter as Walker was a kicker. In 1969, Barney punted 66 times (!) for a 34.7 average, which I am guessing is the most punts in history for a guy averaging less than 35 yards per punt. Barney was last in the league by a wide margin, and finished more than 11 yards per punt behind leader David Lee of the Colts.

[Halas Hall]

Crazy about Lem Barney handling the punting. Thanks for this information.
Nick

[Jay Z]

I've thought the same thing. The Lions brought in Garo Yepremian, who had a good rookie season, then fell off his second year and the Lions probably gave up on Yepremian too quickly. At this same time, the Lions also had Lem Barney performing the punting duties, and Barney was about as good as a punter as Walker was a kicker. In 1969, Barney punted 66 times (!) for a 34.7 average, which I am guessing is the most punts in history for a guy averaging less than 35 yards per punt. Barney was last in the league by a wide margin, and finished more than 11 yards per punt behind leader David Lee of the Colts.

I think Barney wound up being the punter in the Pro Bowl that year as well, as the Western team didn't have a exclusive punter.

[JuggernautJ]

To his credit, Walker had 8 seasons with 100% XP conversions and a career 98.3% rate on extra points.

As Nick said in the initial post, one might think that smaller roster size had something to do with non-specialist kickers.
Paul Hornung actually had a lower career extra point percentage than Walker (97.9%) .

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... lkWa01.htm

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... rnPa00.htm