The 5 O’Clock Club: Replacing Brandon McManus

It’s 5 o’clock somewhere…

The 5 o’clock club is published from time to time during the season, and aims to provide a forum for reader-driven discussion at a time of day when there isn’t much NFL news being published. Feel free to introduce topics that interest you in the comments below.

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The Commanders are suddenly without a kicker, and this is an interesting season with the new rules for kickoffs possibly affecting how teams think about the position. Washington’s previous kicker, Joey Slye, is one of two kickers on the roster in New England, but the incumbent is the Patriots 2023 4th round draft pick, Chad Ryland who hit on only 64% of his field goal attempts in his rookie season. It doesn’t appear likely that Slye will be returning for another go round in burgundy & gold.

With the new rules, leg strength on kickoffs will no longer be as important as it once was. On the other hand, tackling skills may be, and some special teams coaches are apparently thinking about or experimenting with defensive backs or linebackers who have some kicking experience to handle the new kickoffs. If the job scope of the place kicker becomes narrowed to only scoring plays (field goals and extra points), then accuracy, both long and short, will be paramount.

Of course, it’s rarely a good situation for a team to be looking to fill holes with veteran free agents in June. On a quick search, the top two names that I found for veteran free agent kickers were 35-year-old Randy Bullock and 35-year-old Brett Maher.

However, in 2024, there may be an interesting alternative with the UFL season about to come to an end. Starting June 16th, UFL players can sign contracts with NFL teams.

At nearly any other position on a professional football team, I’d hesitate to think I could find a talented player that could be signed from the UFL to take on a starting role in the NFL, but I wonder if placekicker might be the exception.

After all, kicking in one league is much like kicking in the other, except, perhaps, for the size of the crowd. Let me briefly offer a few names of UFL kickers who might merit consideration from the Washington front office and coaching staffs.

Jake Bates – Michigan Panthers

The highest profile kicker in the Spring league, Bates has the longest successful field goal of the ‘24 season at 64 yards, and he is the 2nd leading scorer among kickers. His 77% success rate doesn’t look too inspiring (17 or 22) until one looks at the misses. He did miss a 39-yard attempt early in the season, but his other misses were from 51, 53, 58, and 62 yards.

In Week 5 against the Arlington Renegades, Bates hit 5/5 field goals to help his team with the game 28-27. Among his made field goals was a 60-yarder with 00:02 on the clock before halftime.

On kickoffs, which are teed up at the 20-yard line, he had a 6.3% touchback percentage. Most of the play-by-play entries I looked at had him dropping the ball at around the 5 or 6 yard line.

Bates played his college ball at Texas State and Arkansas, and was an undrafted free agent with the Houston Texans last season, where he lost out in a head-to-head battle with Ka’imi Fairbairn, which is nothing to be ashamed of.

Andre Szmyt – St. Louis Battlehawks

While Bates may have grabbed more headlines, the leading scorer among UFL kickers this season is Szmyt, who has missed only 2 of 21 attempts, with his longest made field goal being 61 yards. He was 4-5 from 50+ yards and 4-5 between 40-49 yards, so his two misses came from relatively long range. While less well-known than Bates among NFL fans, Szmyt may be no less skilled.

In addition to his accuracy, another possible advantage that Szmyt might have is that his Battlehawks team played in front of home crowds that averaged 36,000 fans per game, so he’s been playing half his games in front of noisy (though supportive) crowds while the Panthers games, for instance, were played in front of crowds that averaged closer to 7,000 fans (Washington was 2nd in the league with average attendance of 15,555.

Szmyt’s touchback percentage was 3.3% this season.

Like Bates, Szmyt was an undrafted free agent last year, and he spent his rookie training camp with the Chicago Bears, losing out to the veteran Cairos Santos. As far as I can tell from checking three databases, Szmyt didn’t actually kick in any preseason games for the Bears, but in his 5 seasons at Syracuse, he hit 81% of his field goal attempts and 98% of his extra point attempts.

Matthew McCrane – DC Defenders

If you’re looking for the ‘local’ guy, McCrane is the 3rd-leading scorer among kickers in the UFL. His success rate on field goals is 80%, having made 16-20.

McCrane has a longer NFL history than Bates and Szmyt, having signed with the Cardinals as an undrafted free agent in 2018. In fact, he signed with a total of 4 different NFL teams in his rookie season, making 8 out of 12 attempts for a 67% success rate. He missed both of his attempts over 50 yards that season, and went 3-5 between 40-49 yards. He hasn’t played in the NFL regular season game again, though he was on the training camp or practice squad rosters of the Browns, Cardinals and Eagles in 2020-21.

Jonathan Garibay – Arlington Renegades

The most accurate kicker of this UFL season has been Garibay, who hit 13 of 14 field goal attempts (93%), though his longest made 3-pointer was 48 yards.

Garibay played for the Texas Tech until 2021, and joined the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2022, competing with Mason Crosby, who was not inspiring a lot of confidence at the time. You can read a little bit about Garibay in this ESPN article from the 2022 preseason:

In the one session he kicked during an offseason practice that was open to the media, Garibay displayed a strong leg. He made multiple kicks from 50 yards, but also had a miss from 55 and a 53-yarder ticked off the right upright. McCarthy believes the experience of snapper Jake McQuaide and holder Bryan Anger will help.

“You can definitely get a feel for his ability,” McCarthy said. “… He’s off to a good start. He’s just young.”

Crosby had a better collegiate résumé than Garibay, although Garibay did make a 62-yarder to beat Iowa State and help Texas Tech become bowl eligible. It was the longest make in FBS last season. Garibay missed just one attempt all year (15 of 16) and was a first-team All-Big 12 pick. In 2020, he made 8-of-11 tries.

“Man, as a kicker, you always dream of moments like that, just having the opportunity,” Garibay said. “I live by the saying that I’d rather be ready for an opportunity and not have it then have one and not be ready for it. I think when it came down to it, I was excited for that opportunity to kick that field goal.”

The Cowboys eventually decided to go with Brett Maher, and you may remember how that ended up working out for the Cowboys (he missed 6 out of 7 PATs in his final 3 games, and was part of the reason Dallas got bounced from the playoffs). As far as I can tell, Gariday didn’t get a chance to play for another professional football team until he signed with the Renegades this season.