NO LONGER AN AFTERTHOUGHT KICK AND ROLL NFL TEAMS PUT A PREMIUM ON PLACEKICKERS.

Byline: MATTHEW KREDELL Staff Writer

Mike Vanderjagt couldn't believe his good fortune.

It was 1996, three years after he graduated from West Virginia, and he finally had a regular kicking job for the Toronto Argonauts in the Canadian Football League.

For handling both the place kicking and punting duties for the Argonauts, he was paid about $35,000 a year in U.S. dollars. That was better than the minimum wage he had been making selling shoes at a sporting goods store between brief stints in the CFL and Arena Football League.

Even for the most accurate kicker in NFL history, riches -- and respect -- were a long time coming.

``I used to say, if I ever made it to the NFL, that I'd be happy to make the minimum salary the entire time I was in the league,'' Vanderjagt said. ``Obviously, my mind-set did change.''

This offseason, Vanderjagt took advantage of the increasing importance general managers are putting on the kicking game.

He signed a three-year contract with the Dallas Cowboys for $5.5 million, including a $2.5 million signing bonus, and an additional $600,000 possible in incentives.

In the salary-cap era, where 23.4 percent of the games were decided by three points or less last season, dependable kickers are a valuable commodity.

Dallas came to that conclusion this year, after using inexpensive kickers over the past six seasons.

Last year, with three kickers that combined for the league's third-worst percentage in converting field goals, the Cowboys just missed the playoffs with a 9-7 record. Coach Bill Parcells realized the lack of a reliable kicker kept his team out of the postseason.

``I felt like that probably cost us three games,'' Parcells said.

Dallas wasn't the only team to make finding a kicker an offseason priority. Vanderjagt's former employer, the Indianapolis Colts, broke out $12 million over five years to upgrade to the league's most clutch kicker, Adam Vinatieri.

Vinatieri is the most prominent example of what a kicker can do for a team. Without him, New England may not have won any of its three Super Bowls this decade. He won two of them with field goals on the final play of the game, and his field goal was the winning margin in the other.

``Certainly, Vinatieri showed that if you have a good kicker, good things will happen,'' Vanderjagt said. ``That helped all of us get respect.''

Ryan Longwell had been a problem for Minnesota while kicking for rival Green Bay, twice beating the Vikings with last-second field goals in 2004. So Minnesota spent $10 million over five years to get Longwell on its side.

It was previously unheard of for a kicker to be a team's biggest offseason acquisition. For the Colts, that was certainly the case. Longwell is as big a move as any the Vikings made. Vanderjagt is second only to Terrell Owens among Dallas signings.

``To me, a kicker is as important as anything else,'' said San Diego Chargers general manager A.J. Smith, who spent a third-round pick on kicker Nate Kaeding in 2004. ``They're absolutely equal in my mind. What good is it to build a powerful defense and a powerful offense and be running in kickers and punters with erratic play?''

Smith isn't the only general manager to spend a high draft pick on a kicker lately. The Jets used their second rounder on Mike Nugent in 2005, and the Raiders took Sebastian Janikowski in the first round in 2000.

``We like our kicker because when we got hired here, we felt we needed help on special teams,'' Smith said. ``If you do the right evaluations, you'll have the position set for a long time.''

Smith said he never would put a cap on the amount of money he'd pay to a kicker, especially one with the resume of a Vinatieri or Vanderjagt.

Vanderjagt, entering his ninth year in the NFL, has made 87.5 percent of his field goals, the highest mark in league history.

He's come a long way from that young man happy to have a full-time kicking job that paid $35,000.

``I think there's no question, the salaries we're getting show that people realize games are won and lost by field-goal kickers, whether they want to admit it or not,'' Vanderjagt said. ``We may not practice the hardest, but, come Sunday, if you have a good kicker, then your chances of winning increase.

``Teams are realizing it. There's so much parity in the NFL that games are won and lost by less than seven points most of the time, and that comes down to a kick here and a kick there.''

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Photo:

(1 -- color) The Dallas Cowboys signed Mike Vanderjagt in hopes of putting their recent kicking woes behind them.

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

(2 -- color) Adam Vinatieri left New England for big bucks in Indianapolis.

(3 -- color) Minnesota lured Ryan Longwell away from NFC North rival Green Bay.

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