Nate Kaeding after another disappointing miss (Courtesy of nfl.com)

Many people will put kicker at or near the bottom of team’s needs during the off-season. This is mainly because people don’t respect what a kicker can do for their team. But after this post-season, I think some teams will have to reconsider their kicker position.

With only two rounds of the 2010 post-season finish, kickers have gone 15/26 (57.69%). In a few situations, their misses cost their team a win. The weird thing is that 6 out of the 8 games played so far have been either indoors or in warm weather. Here are the kickers who brought shame, frustration and disappointment to their fans:

Nate Kaeding is only 8 for 15 for his career in the playoffs. His worst performance was arguably last Sunday’s game against the Jets. Kaeding missed all three field goals after missing only three out of 35 attempts during the regular season. Though one of his kicks were from 57 yards out, it is still disappointing for him to miss all three kicks, especially since he’s going to the Pro Bowl. Will the Chargers cut him because of it? Probably not but his playoff stats are less than All-Pro.

Shayne Graham, Golden Graham, one of the better kickers in the league, missed both field goals in the Wildcard Round. Funny thing is, they were both under 40 yards. Now was this one bad game? We might never know but it was an awful performance. But with Graham’s contract coming to an end, there’s a possibility that we might not see the red-headed kicker in a Bengals uniform next season.

Neil Rackers might have cost his team a chance to move on to the Divisional Round after missing a 34 yarder that would have put the Cardinals up three with 14 seconds left. Fortunately for him, the Cardinals won the game. He went 1 for 3 overall in this year’s playoffs. He is now 6 for 10 for his career in the playoffs. Now does he get cut? I can’t see it happening but when you shank a 34 yarder as bad as he did, you got to question your kicker’s abilities.

We as fans should understand how important a great kicker is. Numerous games can come down to a late game-winning kick. Kickers like Adam Vinatieri have so many teams interested in signing them because of their clutch kicks. Sometimes it’s just an intangible thing that kickers have. Bottom line, the kicker position is more important than people make it out to be.