I was really happy to see the Saints pull Grammatica in favor of Mehlaff early this year. And though I really thought Payton pulled the trigger way too early on cutting Mehlhaff, I was glad that they replaced him with another young player. And you got to give Garrett Hartley a lot of credit. He came in and went 13/13 on FGs and 28/28 on XPs. Not bad for a rookie kicker. I'm hoping we found one that will be our guy for long term the way Morten was.
Also had about a 24% touchback percentage on kickoffs. I don't know how that compares to the rest of the league, but I would bet its better than anyone we've had since Morton. I only see two negatives with GH at this point. One (and its more of an unknown than a neg), his long FG last year was 47 yards. Since he never missed, it means we don't know what kind of 50+ FG kicker he is. Two, the haircut: http://www.neworleanssaints.com/Team/Roster/People/Garrett Hartley.aspx
Word is that he has a VERY strong leg, and that was evident with his kickoffs. Keep in mind that the tee has bee shortened and moved back 5 yards since the days that Morten was booming them for the Saints. It's a lot harder to kick touchbacks today than it was then. Not sure how accurate he'll be from long range, but I'd feel comfortable with him kicking anything with a 55 yard kick.
