After using a total of four kickers during the 2024 season, the Washington Commanders have decided to invest a substantial amount money into the position and they did that on Tuesday by signing Matt Gay.
According to NFL Media, the former Pro Bowl kicker has agreed to terms on a one-year, $4.25 million deal that can be worth up to $5 million if Gay hits every incentive. The contract includes $4.25 million in fully guaranteed money, which is the most ever given to a kicker on a one-year deal.
The Commanders will now be hoping that Gay can fix their kicking woes. Washington went into the 2024 season with Cade York at kicker, but after missing two field goals in Week 1, he was promptly cut.
The next man up was Austin Seibert and things actually went well with him until Seibert injured his hip in November. In his first eight games of the season, Seibert was nearly perfect, hitting 25 of 27 field goals and all 22 of his extra points. However, after missing two games due to his hip, Seibert returned to the line up and missed three kicks in one game (two extra points and a field goal) in a 34-26 loss to the Cowboys. Following that outing, the Commanders placed Seibert on injured reserve.
Besides Seibert and York, the Commanders also used Zane Gonazalez and Greg Joseph at kicker. Seibert hit 90% of his field goals in 2024 (27 of 30), but the other three combined to hit just 58.3% of their field goal attempts.
Gay will now try to improve things in Washington, but he does come with some risk. The 2021 Pro Bowler was only available because the Colts surprisingly cut him in early April. Gay spent two seasons in Indianapolis and during that time, he struggled from long range, hitting just 50% of his field goals from 50 yards and longer (11 of 22), including just 33.3% (3 of 9) in 2024. The 31-year-old was dealing with a groin injury just before the start of the 2024 season, which may have factored into his long-distance struggles.
That being said, it’s easy to see why the Commanders like Gay: He was a perfect 28 of 28 from inside 50 yards last season, a number that clearly intrigued Washington. He was also a perfect 33 of 33 on extra points.
For Gay, this will be a huge move because he’ll now be kicking outdoors after spending the past five seasons kicking indoors (He spent three years with the Rams before signing with the Colts). In his six year career, Gay has only finished with an accuracy rate below 80% one time and that came during his lone season outdoors when he hit 77.1% of his field goals as a rookie in Tampa Bay. In 2024, Gay hit 86.6% of his outdoor field goal attempts (13 of 15), which came one year after he hit 87.5% of his outdoor kicks (14 of 16).
Based on the money the Commanders have committed to Gay, they’re certainly expecting him to be the starting kicker in Week 1 and after that, they’ll be hoping that they don’t once again have to use four kickers like they did in 2024.
This news was originally published on this post .
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