Patriots reportedly add veteran kicker after Chad Ryland’s woes in 2023
Joey Slye has reportedly agreed to a deal to join the Patriots.
Chad Ryland will have some competition for the Patriots’ kicker job in 2024.
New England has agreed to terms on a deal with kicker Joey Slye, ESPN’s Mike Reiss reported Thursday. The terms of the deal have yet to be reported.
Slye has bounced around the league since he went undrafted in 2018, being rostered six by six teams. After a team didn’t sign him in 2018, Slye joined the Giants in 2019, but was cut during training camp.
The veteran found his first real NFL home shortly after being cut by the Giants, signing with the Panthers in August 2019. He became their starting kicker by the start of the regular season, making 25 of his 32 field goal attempts. He remained in Carolina for the 2020 season, making 29 of his 36 field goal attempts that year.
The Panthers released Slye at the start of the 2021 season, but he kicked for three other teams that year: the Texans, 49ers, and Commanders. He went 23-for-25 on his field goal attempts that year.
The Commanders were impressed enough by Slye’s performance at the end of the 2021 season that they wound up signing him to a two-year deal. Slye made 44 of his 54 field goal attempts over the last two seasons, including a franchise-record 61-yard-long field goal.
Slye actually signed a deal with the Jaguars in March after his deal with the Commanders expired. However, Jacksonville released him on Tuesday after it selected kicker Cam Little in the sixth round of the 2024 NFL Draft.
The Patriots’ decision to add a veteran kicker doesn’t come as too much of a surprise considering Ryland’s struggles as a rookie last year. The 2023 fourth-round pick made just 16 of 25 field goal attempts, with his field goal percentage (64%) being the worst in the league among qualified kickers.
A couple of those misses were costly, too. He missed a 35-yard field goal in the Patriots’ 10-6 loss to the Colts in their game in Germany. Two weeks later, he missed a 35-yard field goal as time expired in a 10-7 loss to the Giants.
Ryland was mostly consistent though on his extra-point attempts, making 24 of 25. Slye, on the other hand, has been ranked below 20th in extra-point percentage since he entered the league in 2019, holding a career mark of 88.5% on extra-point attempts.
Still, Slye’s career field goal make percentage (82.3%) is markedly better than what Ryland’s was last season. If the Patriots’ offense is anything like it was over the last two seasons in 2024, they’ll need all the help they can get putting points on the board.
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