After watching Olindo Mare last season anyone would likely be an improvement for the Saints.  32-year old Martin Gramatica will battle rookie Taylor Mehlhaff for the starting kicker job on the Saints.  Gramatica played in 3 games for the Saints last season and he made all 5 of his field goal attempts and all 8 of his extra points.  It will be interesting to see if Gramatica can hold off the kid or not.  Gramatica has now played in 104 games in his NFL career and he has connected on 149 of 193 field goals (77.2%).  He also has made 212 of 214 extra points (99.1%) in his career to this point.

Rookie 22-year old Taylor Mehlhaff has a big left leg.  He played in 13 games at Wisconsin last season and he connected on 21 of 25 (84%) field goals.  He also made 42 of 43 extra points (98%) last year.  Mehlhaff can hit the long field goal but he has had some issues kicking on the road as fan noise sometimes rattles him.  He finished his career playing in 51 games at Wisconsin in which he was 50 for 65 (76.9%) on field goals.  He also has converted 145 of 148 extra points (98%) in his career.

PROJECTED GRADE FOR THE 2008 SEASON:  C-