Breaking: Surprise Kicker Gets Nod to Start for Jets vs. Cardinals
The intrigue at placekicker for the New York Jets continues going into Sunday’s game with the Arizona Cardinals, as interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich revealed his choice for who will handle those duties during his final press conference on Friday.
The Jets will “likely” go with Spencer Shrader, the young kicker they signed to the practice squad last week but did not use against the Houston Texans, over the recently-signed Anders Carlson.
New York signed Carlson on Friday and cut Riley Patterson, who kicked for them against the Texans.
The Jets are playing kicker roulette right now after the downturn in performance of veteran kicker Greg Zuerlein, who was played on injured reserve last week.
New York held two different tryouts over a three-week period and signed two kickers to its practice squad last week — Patterson and Shrader.
The Jets elevated Patterson for the game and he went 3-for-3 on extra points, though one did hit the upright before going through.
Shrader, a rookie, has kicked in just one game this season. He signed with the Indianapolis Colts as an undrafted free agent and was elevated to the season-opening roster after an injury to their veteran, Matt Gay.
Schrader made three extra points for the Colts. When Gay returned the next week, Shrader was returned to the practice squad and then released twice by Indianapolis in October. That made him available to participate in tryouts for the Jets.
In his collegiate career, he spent four years at South Florida and his final season with Notre Dame. In his final season with the Fighting Irish he was 15-of-22 on field goals, with a caree-long of 54, along with 61-of-62 on extra points.
For his collegiate career he was 43-of-62 on field goals and 154-of-156 on extra points, with a career total of 289 points.
New York would love to find some stability at placekicker, even as they have made it clear they’re not ready to move on from Zuerlein, who was in the midst of his career worst season before the injury.
When he went on IR, Zuerlein had the worst field-goal percentage of any kicker in the NFL as he was 9-for-15 (60%), his worst since he went 66.7% in 2015.
Carlson, now waiting in the wings, was drafted by the Packers in 2023 in the sixth round (No. 207) out of Auburn. Oddly, that selection was one Green Bay acquired in the Aaron Rodgers trade in 2023.
As a rookie with the Packers he made 81% (27-of-33) of his field goal attempts and 87% (34-of-39) of his extra points. He was 7-of-12 on field goals of 40 yards or longer, including 3-of-5 on field goals of 50 yards or longer.
