I am liking this guy, more and more...

**hermhater** · 10-04-2007, 11:59 PM

Rayner enjoys early success with Chiefs

By RANDY COVITZ

The Kansas City Star

Dave Rayner has been more than special since joining the Chiefs three weeks ago.

His first kickoff bounced out of bounds. His second field-goal attempt was blocked.
Dave Rayner didn’t exactly endear himself to the Chiefs in his Kansas City debut. Not that it mattered. At the time, most of his new teammates didn’t even know his name.
They do now.
Four weeks after Rayner was out of football, the Chiefs awarded him a game ball, and the NFL selected him AFC special-teams player of the week for his three-field goal performance in last week’s 30-16 win at San Diego.
“A job in the NFL is a job in the NFL, and that’s all I was looking for,” the soft-spoken Rayner said, “and it worked out well for both of us.
“Guys are starting to learn my name. When I first got here, I didn’t know anyone. It feels good to have some success, and the team is having success. Everything happens for a reason. I’m in Kansas City because I’m supposed to be here.”
Rayner, 24, went to training camp with Green Bay, where he made 26 of 35 field goals last season — including a franchise-record-tying 54-yarder — but the deck was stacked against him after the Packers selected All-Big 12 kicker Mason Crosby in the sixth round of the draft.
Rayner was released by the Packers, but after rookie Justin Medlock — the kicker the Chiefs drafted in the fifth round ahead of Crosby — was released following his shaky preseason and season opener, Rayner was signed by Kansas City.
“I kicked what I thought was better this year than I did last year in camp and in preseason,” said Rayner, who had come to Kansas City the week before the opener and took part in a group audition of free agents that included veteran John Carney, who later signed with Jacksonville, the Chiefs’ opponent this Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium.
“I was just waiting my turn. I knew somebody would mess up at some time, and I would fill in somewhere.”
In the Chiefs’ victories over Minnesota and San Diego, he made all five of his field goal attempts, keeping the team in the games in the first half, and he’s helped with field position by planting nine of 14 kickoffs in the end zone, including two touchbacks, in his three games.
“He has done a very good job of just giving us consistency and being reliable,” said guard Brian Waters. “We barely know the guy; he came in, and he’s not an overt personality, he doesn’t crave attention.
“He’s a nice guy, goes about his work, and does a heck of a job on kickoffs. The kickoffs add more of an advantage to us than the field goals. Being able to get that field position … but we have to do a better job covering, because he puts that ball 3, 4 yards deep.”
Rayner entered the league as a kickoff specialist when Indianapolis drafted him in the sixth round of the 2005 draft out of Michigan State as understudy to Mike Vanderjagt, then the most accurate field-goal kicker in NFL history.
“They wanted to get me on the field right away instead of keeping me on the practice squad, and that’s why I kicked off for Mike,” said Rayner, who is Michigan State’s all-time leader in points (334), field goals (62 of 90) and extra points (148 of 151).
“It was the best thing that could have happened to me. It’s really hard to come in as a rookie and kick right away and do the whole thing. I think it was really good just to get on the field, get used to the NFL, grow up a little bit, just kick off for the year, and it’s really helped me get where I’m at now.”
Rayner enjoys early success with Chiefs

Dave Rayner has been more than special since joining the Chiefs three weeks ago.

After Vanderjagt signed as an unrestricted free agent with Dallas in 2006, Rayner was all set to handle all the kicking duties. But the Colts signed Hall of Fame-bound, Super Bowl hero Adam Vinatieri, so Rayner asked for his release and hooked on with the Packers.
When the Colts went on to win the Super Bowl last February, Rayner watched the game with four other teammates and the New England Patriots cheerleaders aboard the USS Harry Truman aircraft carrier in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in support of the Navy’s Morale, Welfare and Recreation Group.
He also took a weeklong trip with teammates to Fairbanks, Alaska, and visited troops at Fort Wainwright, a U.S. Army base.
“I like to use football to support the troops and give back to the community and do some fun stuff in the offseason instead of sitting at home,” Rayner said.
“I still talk to some of the soldiers. These guys are serving our country.”