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Another New York Jets signing that crashed and burned almost immediately.
Zack Rosenblatt recently predicted that the team will move on from kicker Greg Zuerlein after having a “a season from hell” in 2024.
Zuerlein is currently on injured reserve with a knee issue. He will be eligible to come off of IR for the Week 14 contest against the Miami Dolphins.
While he will be eligible to return next week, Rosenblatt believes he has “seemingly kicked his last field goal for this team.”
Oh How the Mighty Have Fallen
In 2023, Zuerlein was one of the most reliable placekickers in all of football. He was 35-of-38 on his field goal attempts and consistently came up clutch for the team.
The veteran became an unrestricted free agent this past offseason and fans demanded the team bring him back. Gang Green followed through on that request by giving Zuerlein “the biggest contract in team history for a kicker — two years, $8.4 million, including $4.2 million in guarantees,” per ESPN’s Rich Cimini.
Zuerlein rewarded the Jets with a career-worst season. A career-low 60% conversion rate, 9-of-15 on field goal attempts in 2024. That is not only a new career low for Zuerlein but he also leads the league in missed field goal percentage.
Kickers are a fickle species in the NFL. One year they can be the best in the league and the next they can be the worst. The Jets are 3-8 for a lot of reasons, but missed field goals have completely changed the narrative of this campaign.
Five of their eight losses have come in one-score games.
If former general manager Joe Douglas had been a bit more trigger-happy at kicker perhaps he would still have a job and the team would still be in the thick of the playoff hunt.
Instead, JD sat on his hands for too long, and by the time he eventually pulled the plug it was too late and the season was effectively over.
Jets Might Have the Future at Kicker Inside Their Building
Douglas and Robert Saleh were both already fired. They won’t be the last ones inside the building to meet that fate. A new regime is taking over sooner rather than later.
When that happens the new regime likes to bring in their own people, but there are exceptions to that rule. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
While Zuerlein leads the league in field goal missed percentage, their other kicker leads the league in field goal made percentage.
Anders Carlson has made 100% of his attempts. It is a relatively small sample size, seven-for-seven so far on the season, but it’s still a perfect batting average.
Carlson, 26, is only in his second season at the NFL level. He entered the league as the No. 207 overall pick in the sixth round by way of the Green Bay Packers.
If Carlson continues his field goal-making ways, why wouldn’t the next regime want him to stick around? That would be one less thing that they would have to replace this offseason.
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