The Buffalo Bills have been plagued by an uneasy kicking situation late in the season. Matt Prater, the 41-year-old 19-year NFL veteran, suffered a quad injury after the Bills’ Week 15 victory over the New England Patriots.
Prater missed the next two games, but was back last week against the New York Jets. He went 3/3 on extra points in the first half, but did not play in the second. He is listed as questionable going into the round one playoff game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
As such, the Buffalo Bills decided to host three free agent kickers for a tryout on Tuesday afternoon.
Those kickers were Matthew Wright, Matt Gay, and Younghoe Koo.
Gay was a fifth-round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft and has been an NFL mainstay ever since. He has made 182-216 career field goals for a FG percentage of 84.3
Koo set the world on fire in 2020 when he drilled 37-39 of his field goals for a startling 94.9 percent FG% in his third NFL season. He continued on this historic pace before taking a confidence hit in 2024, when he missed a career-high nine field goals and was released by the Atlanta Falcons.
He was on and off rosters this season.
Then there is Wright.
Wright is the youngest of the three, but at just 29 years old, Buffalo could be the 10th active roster Wright would be signed to in his short six-year career.
He has bounced around from team to team and maintained just one full season of starting experience, but nevertheless, it was Wright that the Bills agreed to sign to their practice squad.
– The Bills have signed K Matthew Wright to the team’s practice squad & released OL Richard Gouraige.
– The team also signed K Maddux Trujillo to a Reserve/Future contract.
More info on Matthew Wright ⬇️
More On The Matthew Wright Signing
Matthew Wright has not been bad by any means during his six-year NFL career.
He entered the league in 2020, kicking for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was 4-4 on field goals and 7-7 on extra points in his three seasons played.
The next year, he was in Jacksonville kicking for the Jaguars.
He was 21-24 on the season, with all of his misses coming from more than 40 yards out. He was 13-15 on extra points during his 14-game 2021 season.
That was the last time Wright had extensive kicking experience.
He made just one appearance in 2023, was on three rosters in 2024, and three different rosters in 2025. If signed to the Bills’ active roster for the playoffs, it will be Wright’s fourth team of the season.
Regardless, his 88.2 career field goal percentage is better than the other two, much more experienced kickers. He has only missed two of his 47 career extra point attempts.
But when it comes to postseason experience, he has none.
Bills Try Out 3 Kickers, Make Head-Scratching Signing Before Playoffs