Ranking the Cleveland Browns rookies based on perceived impact for 2022
By Chad Porto
9. K Cade York
Cade York starts off the list for obvious reasons. While he very well may be a great addition to the team, the fact is you don’t draft kickers. The fact that so many keep pointing to the Bengals as a reason why a team should, but not to the Rams is proof that people just want to believe what they want.
If you don’t know, the Bengals drafted their current kicker, and he ended up being a nice get for them. This one time drafting a kicker paid off has now convinced everyone to do just that, after all, the Bengals went to (and lost) the Super Bowl. Yet, the team that won the Super Bowl signed their kicker. They won. One would think you’d follow the trend of successful teams.
This isn’t a dig on the Bengals, no, it’s a dig on the Browns. They’ve drafted three kickers since 2017, so clearly drafting kickers hasn’t panned out so well.
York may be a great kicker and you can cite all the reasons why he’d be great. All I’ll reply with is Mike Nugent. A kicker so “can’t miss” the Jets took him as their first pick in the 2nd round. There is no such thing as a guarantee and taking a kicker in the draft is almost as narrowminded as taking a long-snapper.
We’ve done that too.
Even if York is a good kicker, he’s still just a kicker and you only need him when everyone else has failed to do their job. Otherwise, you’d never need a kicker.