Shaun Suisham

Shaun Suisham: You may have heard by now, Jeff Reed has been cut and replaced by Shaun Suisham  So, who the hell is Shaun Suisham, and how does he stack up?  Here is a quick look.

Suisham is a 6'0 200 lb Canuck from the great white north of Ontario, Canada.   At 29 years old he is two years younger than Jeff Reed and has six year's experience as an NFL kicker.  In his last stop with the Redskins Suisham connected on 85.7% of his FG attempts, compared to 65.2% for Jeff Reed so far this year.  Suisham played his college ball at Bowling Green, and that coupled with his time in Washington and Canada, the cold and sloppy weather of Pittsburgh in December shouldn't be much of a problem for him as Mike Tomlin pointed out repeatedly in his presser.   Some red flags on Suisham are apparent however.  In the playoffs for Dallas last year he missed FG's of 48 and 49 yards in a loss to the Vikings.  He was also cut by the Rams and Browns in training camp this summer.   Suisham is probably a 1 year band-aid for the Steelers meaning they will be on the open market for a kicker again after the season.

Looking closer at Reed vs. Suisham here is where each stacks up for a career on FG percentages:
      20-29     30-39     40-49     50+     Overall
Reed     92%     92%     66%     47%     81.9%
Suisham     97%     79%     76%     33%     79.1%



Nothing really jumps out at you from that chart.  Suisham is 26 of 33 from 30-39 yards which isn't great especially compared to Reed, but Suisham has been better than Reed on the longer kicks from 40+ as he has connected on 28 of 37 from that range.   The guy isn't likely going to be a great kicker, but he'll likely be better than Reed has been so far this year, and 100x better guy off the field.

Speaking of off the field, it is only fitting to pay homage to Jeff Reed's off-field antics in his days as a Steeler.  In life it is important to be one of two things.  Good at what you do, or entertaining.  For a while there Jeff Reed was great at both.  Whether it was his ridiculous hair, his beating up paper towel dispensers at Sheetz, posing shirtless while drooling on young ladies at Pittsburgh area night clubs, trying to fight cops who wanted to take away his God-given right to piss in public,  taking pictures of his dong, or wearing a 'Haters Gonna Hate' t-shirt after missing a 23 yard FG, Jeff Reed was ALWAYS entertaining!  And because of this Skippy, your time in the Burgh will not be forgotten, and you will be missed.



.......wide right



...from 23 yards out............