CrimsonCrew wrote:What would be a reasonable value for Gould in a trade? 4th rounder? More? The Bears seem to be getting increasingly desperate, but how important is the kicker ultimately? I guess a lot hinges on how they feel about Trubisky leading their offense.
The last NOTABLE kickers to be traded:
2015:
Pittsburgh received: Josh Scobee (age 33)
Jacksonville received: 2016 6th-round pick (became QB Brandon Allen)
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2014:
Denver received: Brandon McManus (as a rookie)
New York Giants received: 2015 7th-round pick (eventually traded the pick)
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2014:
Philadelphia received: Cody Parkey (go figure it's him that's kind of necessitating this talk)
Indianapolis received: RB David Fluellen
That's every notable kicker name whose been involved in a trade in the last 5 years. Scobee is probably your best comparison. Scobee hovered just inside and just outside the top 50 for best accuracy percentage in NFL history.
Robbie Gould is the 2nd most accurate kicker in NFL history and in his last 3 seasons in which he's played every game he's had accuracy %'s of 84.6%, 95.1%, and 97.1% (a career high if you eliminate his 100% season in which he only played in 10 games).
Obviously the age thing is going to be the strongest argument for not getting too ridiculous about asking for and receiving a compensation package but it's hard to predict what he could, should, and potentially would go for in a trade factoring in value, age, and positional importance.
I'm probably not the best person to ask because Gould is one of my all-time favorite kickers (The Niners have ridiculously gone on a stretch of acquiring a few of my all-time favorite kickers as guys you'd want to have) and I hold the belief that if you think you're ANYWHERE close to having a season in which you can compete, you absolutely should not and can not go in to a season without having a reliable kicker IF you already have one or one shows the interest in coming to your team. If you have one or if one wants to come on board, I'm almost always fine setting a new bench mark for kicker money if that's what you have to do for it to be necessary to work.
At the same time, I don't exactly know how difficult it will be to get Gould to come in at the end when the games are about to start. I don't exactly know what kind of feelings that will set off among teammates in this situation and how you'd have to approach that or change any of that to fit in with that side of the game. However, I would probably hold firm on keeping him even if some feelings are a little sore between both parties.
