The Washington Football Team is having a kicker merry-go-round, it isn’t a bad thing in a lost season though.
The Washington Football Team is now on their third kicker of the season. It’s not due to injury either. After seven up-and-down seasons with the team, Dustin Hopkins was let go following a statistically solid start to the year. However, he was bailed out a few times and already had two missed extra points. Then came Chris Blewitt, who went 2-for-5 in two games before being released. All three misses were blocked, as he didn’t seem to get much loft on his kicks.
Now in comes Joey Slye. Slye spent the first two years of his career with the Carolina Panthers. He was decent there. Nothing spectacular, but solid. This season he’s already spent time with the Houston Texans and San Francisco 49ers. Slye is 11-for-13 in that time (9-for-12 on extra points). So again, not exactly the definition of accuracy.
However, this wild merry-go-round that the Washington Football Team has going on at the kicker position isn’t a bad thing. The reason why? They aren’t good.
Washington is 2-6. If they were even 4-4 it would be a different story. They would be in the playoff picture and need consistency. So swapping kickers would be a weird move. Hopkins was good enough that he would likely still have his job in the team was winning.
That being said, Hopkins is not an elite kicker. Not even really a top-tier kicker. The power was never trusted for the long kicks and he had a few crucial misses in his time with Washington.
Kicker is one of the most overlooked positions in football. Everyone knows it is extremely important – but at the same time, it’s never really talked about. David Akers, Adam Vinatieri, Justin Tucker – it’s not a coincidence their teams tend to be good.
Having a great and consistent kicker is not 100% connected to winning Super Bowls. It certainly does not hurt though. And it’s something the Washington Football Team has been missing for a very long time.
Is Joey Slye the answer? With a career 80.2 field goal percentage, more than likely not. However, it doesn’t hurt to try. Dustin Hopkins was not the guy – and in a lost season, Washington decided to try someone else out. Chris Blewitt quickly gave them the answer to if he was the future at the position, and saw the door as well. Now it’s Slye’s turn.
Seeing a carousel at any position can be frustrating for fans. If you’re a fan of Washington, you know that all too well when it comes to quarterbacks (so kicker should be a walk in the park when you think about it). That being said, if you’re going to experiment it doesn’t hurt to do so in a “lost” season.
At 2-6, it’s unlikely Washington is going anywhere positive this season. So why not try and find long-term solutions. Maybe they can find their Dan Bailey or Sebastian Janikowski in all this shuffle.