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The New York Jets are adding some brutus beefcake to the kicking position.
On Saturday, March 26, Gang Green announced they had come to terms with former Dallas Cowboys kicker Greg Zuerlein.
Connor Hughes of The Athletic shared the financial terms of the deal: one year contract that can be worth a maximum of $2.75 million.
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A Proven Reliable Piece
In his column talking about the signing, Hughes said that Zuerlein “is undeniably the most talented and established kicker the Jets have had since” 2018 when they had Pro Bowler Jason Myers on the roster.
He isn’t wrong.
Back in late August of 2018, the Jets got lucky and claimed the no-name Myers off of waivers and he went on to have a historic season. He went 33-of-36 from the field which was good enough for a 91.7 percent conversion rate.
After the season he was able to parlay that into a juicy four-year $15.4 million contract with the Seattle Seahawks in free agency.
Since then it has been a revolving door of musical chairs for the Jets at kicker.
Now they hope this signing can end all the craziness. The 34-year-old Zuerlein may be older, but with that comes experience and some battle scars:
- First-team All-Pro
- Pro Bowler
- NFL scoring leader
The veteran placekicker will be entering his 11th professional season in 2022 and the Jets will be his third different NFL team he has suited up for.
Last year he went 29-of-35 which was only an 82.9 percent conversion rate (25th in the NFL). However, Michael Gehlken who covers the Cowboys for the Dallas Morning News said “offseason back surgery affected his swing in 2021” which could explain the off-year.
Living up to His Promise
Earlier in the offseason head coach Robert Saleh was asked about the state of the kicking position and he promised to season ticket holders that more competition was coming.
Mission accomplished.
Although according to Hughes, Zuerlein will be more than just competition currently he is considered the “front-runner to win the job.”
The other two kickers on the Jets roster are Matt Ammendola and Eddy Pineiro. Ammendola started out hot but flamed out last year. While Pineiro was added to the fold pretty late in the season and made the most of his opportunity.
In five games he went eight-for-eight from the field and showed a lot of promise that he could finally be the chosen one. However, one red flag on his resume is his overall lack of experience.
Pineiro has only played in 21 career NFL games since joining the league in 2019. That was obviously something general manager Joe Douglas wasn’t comfortable with, which explains why he went out and signed a more proven commodity in Zuerlein.
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