A bunch of teams are going with young or unproven kickers. If history is any indication, some of these players won’t last the season. At the NFL level, you have to make the kicks or they get rid of you in a hurry.
Quinn Nordin, Tristan Vizcaino (pictured), Matt Ammendola and Ryan Santoso all come to mind. None of these guys were NFL-caliber kickers at the college level. (Nordin and Vizcaino are notable in that they play for pretty good teams now, with some potential to finish as top-10 scorers if things break right.)
Also on the accuracy watch list: Evan McPherson, Chase McLaughlin, Greg Joseph and Sam Ficken.
I was playing around with some of these numbers this morning. In the last 10 years, 38 rookie kickers have debuted in Week 1. Eight of those kickers were gone before the second half of the season (with black dots in the chart). Only eight were still around after three seasons.
Seven of the kickers mentioned are still active and with their initial team, and I’ve got them bold.
I listed eight kickers by name, and four of them aren’t rookies (they have limited experience). But I’m bringing them into the discussion because they haven’t done enough yet to get over the hump, establishing themselves as accepted NFL options.
In the chart below, you’re looking at rookie kickers, and how they fared in their first NFL games. The final column shows the number of games the player lasted with his original team before he was replaced (for the guys in bold, they’ll add to those games on Sunday).
ROOKIE KICKERS DEBUTING IN WEEK 1 | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Player | Opp | Result | XP | FG | Pts | G |
2011 | Dan Bailey, DAL | at NYJ | L 24-27 | 3-3 | 1-1 | 6 | 108 |
2011 | Alex Henery, PHI | at STL | W 31-13 | 4-4 | 1-1 | 7 | 48 |
2012 | Justin Tucker, BAL | CIN | W 44-13 | 5-5 | 3-3 | 14 | 144 |
2012 | Greg Zuerlein, STL | at DET | L 23-27 | 2-2 | 3-3 | 11 | 119 |
2012 | Blair Walsh, MIN | JAX | W 26-23 | 2-2 | 4-4 | 14 | 73 |
2012 | • John Potter, BUF | at NYJ | L 28-48 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 6 |
2013 | Randy Bullock, HOU | at SDG | W 31-28 | 4-4 | 1-2 | 7 | 35 |
2013 | Caleb Sturgis, MIA | at CLE | W 23-10 | 2-2 | 3-3 | 11 | 32 |
2014 | Brandon McManus, DEN | IND | W 31-24 | 4-4 | 1-1 | 7 | 110 |
2014 | Cairo Santos, KAN | TEN | L 10-26 | 1-1 | 1-2 | 4 | 51 |
2014 | Chandler Catanzaro, ARI | SDG | W 18-17 | 0-0 | 2-2 | 6 | 48 |
2014 | Cody Parkey, PHI | JAX | W 34-17 | 4-4 | 2-2 | 10 | 19 |
2014 | Patrick Murray, TAM | CAR | L 14-20 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 2 | 16 |
2014 | • Nate Freese, DET | NYG | W 35-14 | 3-3 | 2-3 | 9 | 3 |
2015 | Jason Myers, JAX | CAR | L 9-20 | 0-1 | 1-2 | 3 | 38 |
2015 | Andrew Franks, MIA | at WAS | W 17-10 | 2-2 | 1-1 | 5 | 32 |
2015 | Josh Lambo, SDG | DET | W 33-28 | 3-4 | 2-2 | 9 | 32 |
2015 | Travis Coons, CLE | at NYJ | L 10-31 | 1-1 | 1-1 | 4 | 16 |
2015 | • Zach Hocker, NOR | at ARI | L 19-31 | 1-1 | 4-4 | 13 | 6 |
2015 | • Kyle Brindza, TAM | TEN | L 14-42 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 2 | 4 |
2016 | Wil Lutz, NOR | OAK | L 34-35 | 4-4 | 2-4 | 10 | 80 |
2016 | Roberto Aguayo, TAM | at ATL | W 31-24 | 4-4 | 1-1 | 7 | 16 |
2017 | Ka'imi Fairbairn, HOU | JAX | L 7-29 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 1 | 64 |
2017 | Aldrick Rosas, NYG | at DAL | L 3-19 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 3 | 48 |
2017 | Zane Gonzalez, CLE | PIT | L 18-21 | 1-1 | 1-1 | 4 | 18 |
2017 | Giorgio Tavecchio, OAK | at TEN | W 26-16 | 2-2 | 4-4 | 14 | 16 |
2017 | • Younghoe Koo, LAC | at DEN | L 21-24 | 3-3 | 0-1 | 3 | 4 |
2018 | Jason Sanders, MIA | TEN | W 27-20 | 3-3 | 2-2 | 9 | 48 |
2018 | Brett Maher, DAL | at CAR | L 8-16 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 29 |
2018 | • Daniel Carlson, MIN | SFO | W 24-16 | 3-3 | 1-1 | 6 | 2 |
2019 | Joey Slye, CAR | LAR | L 27-30 | 3-3 | 2-3 | 9 | 32 |
2019 | Austin Seibert, CLE | TEN | L 13-43 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 1 | 18 |
2019 | Eddy Pineiro, CHI | GNB | L 3-10 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 3 | 16 |
2019 | Matt Gay, TAM | SFO | L 17-31 | 2-2 | 1-1 | 5 | 16 |
2019 | • Kaare Vedvik, NYJ | BUF | L 16-17 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0 | 1 |
2020 | Rodrigo Blankenship, IND | at JAX | L 20-27 | 2-2 | 2-3 | 8 | 16 |
2020 | Tyler Bass, BUF | NYJ | W 27-17 | 3-3 | 2-4 | 9 | 16 |
2020 | • Sam Sloman, LAR | DAL | W 20-17 | 2-2 | 2-3 | 8 | 8 |
Statistics compiled using search tools at Pro-Football-Reference.com
—Ian Allan