New York Jets hope kicker rotations change with Greg Zuerlein

The New York Jets have signed veteran kicker Greg Zuerlein, and with it hope that their frequent rotation at the position is settled in the short-term.

The 2018 season was the last time the New York Jets utilized just one kicker through an entire NFL season when Jason Myers played his solitary year at the MetLife Stadium – earning himself the only Pro Bowl selection of his career before moving on to the Seattle Seahawks.

Since losing Myers to the Seahawks in free agency, the Jets have cycled through no less than seven different kickers between 2019 and 2021, with Sam Ficken playing 24 games in total in 2019 and 2020 while others such as Kaare Vedvik, Sergio Castillo, and Matt Ammendola also played with varying degrees of success.

General manager Joe Douglas has looked to provide the team with some much-needed stability at the position with the signing of former Dallas Cowboys and St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams kicker Greg ‘The Leg’ Zuerlein.

The 34-year-old from Lincoln, Nebraska spent eight seasons with the Rams after being selected in the sixth round (171st overall) of the 2012 Draft – going on to set a franchise record for the longest field goal at 61 yards in 2016.

2017 was his best season with the team that drafted him as he was named a first-team All-Pro, earned a Pro Bowl selection, and was the leading points scorer in the NFL – helping the Rams claim an NFC West title with an 11-5 record, albeit seeing the team knocked out in the wild card round of the playoffs by the Atlanta Falcons.

Zuerlein moved to Dallas after the 2019 season and, while he saw his extra point kicking accuracy dip from 97.8% down to 89.3%, he was able to maintain his career-average 82% on field goals – with a single-season high 41 attempts during the 2020 campaign.

The veteran kicker continues to be particularly accurate in the 30-49 yard range and should provide the New York Jets with the desired consistency and reliability that they have been searching for over the past three years.

He does face some competition for the starting job with Ammendola and Eddy Pineiro, both of whom played for the Jets in 2021, still currently on the roster – but he is largely expected to overcome his teammates and secure himself an 11th consecutive season as a starter in the NFL.

For the Jets, if they can get Zuerlein to play all 17 regular season games in 2022, it will be the first time in nearly four years that they haven’t relied on a rotation and should give them exactly what they need to continue building a more competitive team.