Competion is good, right?
Every offseason, every position should – at least hypothetically – be up for grabs. Particularly those positions where there’s a very easy path to improvement. For Washington, kicker was one of those positions. This evening, Ron Rivera and company decided to kick off an open competition at the kicking position.
They signed former Lion, Bear, Titan, Colt, and Charger, Michael Badgley aka “The Money Badger.”
Update: The Commanders are signing kicker Michael Badgley, source confirms.
We have a kicker competition. https://t.co/uCRiLnq9fo
— Ben Standig (@BenStandig) July 24, 2023
Last season, Badgley went 33 for 33 on his extra points and hit 83% of his field goals, with a long of 53 yards. He was one of three kickers in the league to be perfect on extra points in 2023. Over his 5-year career, he’s hit 97% of his extra points and 82% of his field goals.
Washington’s incumbent kicker, Joey Slye struggled with extra points last year, hitting only 86% of those kicks, and had a virtually identical field goal percentage (83%) to Badgley, with a long of 58. Over his career, Slye has hit 88% of his extra points and 83% of his field goals.
At this point, Slye is slated to make $2.35M this year. If cut, he would save the team $1.85M in cap space. Last year, Badgley was paid $1.23M by the Lions.
One oddity is that Badgley has tended not to handle kickoffs, posting 5 to Slye’s 77 last season. In Detroit, the punter, Jack Fox handled most of those kicks. Slye’s touchback percentage was the third highest in the league (77%).
Perhaps with the recent kickoff rule changes Ron Rivera and Nate Kaczor have something up their sleeve?