If I were walking into a draft today, I would think about using my last pick on Matt Bryant. He’s not even on a team, but I think he’s got a chance to be a top-5 kicker.
Robbie Gould and the 49ers, of course, are in a standoff. He wants to return to play in Chicago. They’ve got him protected by the franchise tag, but he says he won’t show up until September. The Bears are helping this drama along by patiently waiting – they haven’t made a commitment to a notable kicker.
I would think that at some point, San Francisco would be willing to let him go. If they could get a fourth-round pick out of Chicago, that would probably get the deal done. The Bears have given up a lot more in trades before with the 49ers (see “Trubisky, 2017 draft”).
If and when Gould heads back to Windy City, I would expect Kyle Shanahan would start thinking about Bryant. They were a successful pair in Atlanta in 2016, with Bryant scoring a league-high 158 kicking points.
Bryant is old (maybe too old – he turns 44 this month) but Shanahan’s offenses tend to be kicker friendly. Only five kickers have scored 145-plus points in a season in the last three years, and Shanahan’s fingerprints are on two of them.
Whoever winds up kicking in San Francisco will be a good contender for top-5 production, and I think there’s some chance it’s Bryant.
HIGHEST-SCORING KICKERS, last 3 years | ||
---|---|---|
Year | Player | Pts |
2017 | Greg Zuerlein, LAR | 158 |
2016 | Matt Bryant, Atl. | 158 |
2017 | Stephen Gostkowski, N.E. | 156 |
2018 | Ka'imi Fairbairn, Hou. | 150 |
2017 | Robbie Gould, S.F. | 145 |
2017 | Chris Boswell, Pitt. | 142 |
2017 | Harrison Butker, K.C. | 142 |
2018 | Justin Tucker, Balt. | 141 |
2017 | Justin Tucker, Balt. | 141 |
2016 | Justin Tucker, Balt. | 141 |
2017 | Wil Lutz, N.O. | 140 |
2016 | Dustin Hopkins, Wash. | 138 |
2018 | Harrison Butker, K.C. | 137 |
2017 | Matt Bryant, Atl. | 137 |
2018 | Wil Lutz, N.O. | 136 |
2017 | Ryan Succop, Tenn. | 136 |
2016 | Caleb Sturgis, Phil. | 135 |
2016 | Wil Lutz, N.O. | 133 |
2018 | Stephen Gostkowski, N.E. | 130 |
2017 | Matt Prater, Det. | 130 |
2017 | Kai Forbath, Minn. | 130 |
2018 | Jason Myers, NYJ | 129 |
2016 | Cairo Santos, K.C. | 129 |
2016 | Stephen Hauschka, Sea. | 128 |
2018 | Aldrick Rosas, NYG | 127 |
2016 | Dan Bailey, Dall. | 127 |
2016 | Nick Novak, Hou. | 127 |
2016 | Stephen Gostkowski, N.E. | 127 |
2018 | Robbie Gould, S.F. | 126 |
2016 | Adam Vinatieri, Ind. | 125 |
—Ian Allan