The New York Jets announced a kicker change on Wednesday. The NFL team waived Anders Carlson to create a roster spot for Harrison Mevis.
Nicknamed the “Thiccer Kicker,” the 5-foot-11, 243-pound Mevis played for the United Football League’s Birmingham Stallions in the 2025 season. Mevis made 20-of-21 field-goal attempts in 10 regular-season games with Birmingham. The lone miss came from 63 yards, and Memphis wide receiver Isiah Hennie returned it 108 yards for a touchdown on the final play of the first half in the Showboats’ 24-20 upset of the Stallions on April 25.
Mevis kicked for four seasons at Missouri and ranks fourth in SEC history with 415 career points.
Last year, Mevis signed with the Carolina Panthers as an undrafted rookie. The NFL team released him three days after he’d made a 41-yarder on his only field-goal attempt in the Panthers’ preseason opener.
Carlson ranks sixth in SEC history with five fewer points than Mevis while kicking for Auburn. Carlson and Mevis squared off once in the SEC. On Sept. 24, 2022, Mevis missed a 26-yard field-goal attempt on the final snap of the fourth quarter before Carlson made a 39-yard field goal in overtime to lift Auburn to a 17-14 victory at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Carlson made 8-of-10 field-goal attempts and 9-of-11 extra-point tries in five games for the Jets in 2024. Carlson had the only field goal for New York of at least 50 yards last season when he made a 58-yarder in a 28-27 loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Nov. 17.
Carlson also kicked in two games as an injury replacement for the San Francisco 49ers in 2024. He made 5-of-5 field-goal attempts, including connecting from 55 yards, and 3-of-4 field-goal tries with the 49ers in his second NFL season.
Carlson joined the Green Bay Packers as a sixth-round selection in the 2023 NFL Draft. He displaced 16-year veteran Mason Crosby as Green Bay’s kicker and became the first rookie in league history to make a field goal in 17 regular-season games. But with the playoffs included, he also had the most missed extra points with six and most missed total kicks with 13 in the NFL in 2023.
In his first NFL season, Carlson made 27-of-33 field-goal attempts and 34-of-39 extra-point tries in the regular season and 2-of-3 field-goal attempts and 7-of-8 extra-point tries in two postseason games.
Carlson’s postseason field-goal miss came on a 41-yard attempt with 6:18 left in a second-round game against San Francisco on Jan. 20. The 49ers responded with a 12-play, 69-yard drive capped by running back Christian McCaffrey’s 6-yard touchdown run with 67 seconds to play. San Francisco took a 24-21 lead instead of tying the game, and that ended up as the final score.
The Packers waived Carlson at the end of the 2024 preseason.
The Jets used five kickers in the 2024 season – Greg Zuerlein in eight games, Anders in five and Greg Joseph, Riley Patterson and Spencer Shrader in one apiece. Zuerlein did all his kicking in the first eight games before going on injured reserve.
New York had re-signed Carlson on Jan. 14.
Mevis joins Caden Davis as the kickers on the Jets’ offseason roster. Davis kicked at Texas A&M from 2020 through 2022 and Ole Miss in 2023 and 2024. He signed with New York as an undrafted rookie on May 9.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at@AMarkG1.