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Earlier this week, report indicated Miami Dolphins kicker Caleb Sturgis would miss the remainder of the offseason training program as he recovers from an injury to his leg sustained during the team's Organized Team Activities. A few days later, more is known about the injury, including it being a pull quadraceps muscle in his plant leg, oh, and that it came during a team sanctioned kickball game.
Yes, the kicker was injured playing....KICKball. Oh, the irony.
To paraphrase Allen Iverson, we're talking kickball, not football, kickball.
In most offseasons, this would go down as a fluke injury to a player. An injury that occured in June and should not have much of an impact on the regular season, which opens in September. This injury, however, comes to Sturgis, who has dealt with injuries throughout his two years with the Dolphins, and, frankly, has struggled with accuracy. He has a career 77.5-percent conversion rate on field goals, connecting on 78.4-percent last year, ranking him 28th in the league. Sturgis has struggled from distance in his career, missing 7 of 13 attempts from beyond 50 yards and 6 of 20 attempts from 40- to 49-yards. An injury now may not mean the Dolphins are going to escort him out of the building next week, but it sure does mean the door is open for another kicker to pounce on the job.
Currently, the Dolphins have rookie kicker Andrew Franks from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on the roster. He has also had some accuracy concerns, but could be in the perfect position to move from a Division III NCAA school to a starting NFL spot.
The Dolphins could also look to bring in a veteran kicker to either fill the role until Sturgis is ready to play, or to replace Sturgis out-right. Whatever the case, a team building game of kickball could end up being the downfall for the Dolphins' incumbent kicker.
Sturgis should be ready to kick again when training camp opens next month. He has to be, because, injury or not, he could suddenly find himself in a position battle.