Things are not going well for mid-round kickers drafted in recent years. The Pittsburgh Steelers are currently preparing to face a San Francisco 49ers team that just had to sign one of their own former reserves, Matthew Wright, because rookie third-round Jake Moody, following a poor preseason, is dealing with an injury.
And the Cleveland Browns have already given up on Cade York drafted in the fourth round a year ago, following a poor preseason himself. After making only 75 percent of his field goal attempts in 2022, he only went 4-for-8 over a four-game exhibition stretch, including misses on multiple kicks that would have been the difference in a win or a loss/tie.
They let him go after trading for veteran K Dustin Hopkins with the Los Angeles Chargers. It sounds as though they hoped to re-sign him to the practice squad, based on head coach Kevin Stefanski’s comments recently, but the young kicker had other ideas.
Asked if it was disappointing that York chose to sign with the Tennessee Titans’ practice squad, he answered in the affirmative. “Yeah. I mean, like we talked about yesterday, [we were] disappointed how it all worked out. Rooting for him. Not surprised ultimately that he went somewhere else. But that’s kind of the nature of this business, really”.
Just days before he was waived following a blocked field goal attempt that would have been a game winner, York said that his teammates were supportive of his struggles but that he wasn’t looking for pity. “Pity pisses me off. I want to be a weapon”, he said.
“I know how good I am. That’s been the most frustrating thing the last month, struggling with that”, he continued. “The real games start soon. Just trying to take a running start into the season and just start putting them through all the time”.
To be clear, the Titans only signed York to their practice squad, after they added long-time veteran Nick Folk to be their kicker via trade. He did not opt to sign to another team’s 53-man roster. He decided to leave the Browns organization entirely by choosing to sign with another team’s practice squad.
Surely it’s not easy to be let go by the team that drafted you after just one season. The Steelers have parted company with high draft picks in a similar timeframe. OL Kraig Urbik, who went on to have a successful career, was a former third-round pick who was waived prior to the start of his second season. LB Bruce Davis is another. His career went less successfully.
Kickers who actually get drafted, especially relatively early in the draft, have almost a stigma attached to them. Their failure is more dramatic than that of a positional player on offense or defense, since so few specialists actually get drafted. The hit rate is expected to be 100 percent, but—well, it’s not. It never is.
