Ravens expect trade offers for kickers

August 8, 2010 2:00 PM by Dan Kolko View Comments

The Ravens believe they have two quality NFL kickers in Shayne Graham and Billy Cundiff.

That's why they expect to receive trade offers for one of them at some point before the start of the regular season.

Head coach John Harbaugh said yesterday that he thinks that teams in need of a kicker will be interested in talking shop with the Ravens rather than risk losing Graham or Cundiff through the waiver process once one of the two is released.

"I would be really surprised if we don't get calls on these guys," Harbaugh said. "Sometimes people wait and they know we've got to let somebody go, so they'll wait for you to let somebody go. But, the problem is if you're low on the pecking order of claiming rights - and you need a kicker and somebody else needs a kicker who's ahead of you - you've got to trade for him. So, I think that's something that could be beneficial for us.

"We'll see, but both these guys are going to kick really well this year in the National Football League."

Graham and Cundiff have been neck and neck throughout training camp, and both guys have kicked well.

Graham has more NFL experience and is the fourth-most accurate kicker in NFL history, but the Ravens really like Cundiff and have a comfort level with him from last year.

"Our thing right now is that we know it's going to be a tough decision," Harbaugh said. "We just kind of put it on the backburner. We don't have to make that decision yet, so we don't want to. You see them every day. They're both kicking really well.

"My gut feeling is it's going to be a gut feeling, which is the toughest way to do it. You'd like to have it be black and white, and you can make that kind of choice, but right now it looks like they're both going to kick really well."