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Jacksonville Jaguars kicker Matthew Wright.
The final preseason game is the conclusion to many things. Whetherit’s the end of grueling training camp battles, the end of Summer, or the end of careers in the NFL. The Carolina Panthers will see the conclusion to their kicking battle that has raged over the last few months.
The competitors in the battle are a veteran and a rookie. Seven-year journeyman kicker Matthew Wright and rookie Ryan Fitzgerald. Against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the two will hope to make a significant enough impression that one pulls ahead. So far, special teams coordinator Tracy Smith has been coy about who is in the lead or not. Anthony Rizzuti ofPanthers Wire on August 12 hadSmith’s quotes on the matter.
“Both guys aredoin’ areally nice job,”Smith stated. “Both made their kicks in the game—that’s the most important part of it. Andwe’re gonna keep going forward in the same way untilit’s time to figure it out.”
The competition can come down to either player, and there is a case for both.
The Case For Matthew Wright
Matthew Wright has been a career journeyman kicker. He first signed as an undrafted free agent by the Steelers in 2019, Wright has been in and out of the NFL since then. Wright even worked at Lockheed Martin as an aerospace engineer before once again fully pursuing his NFL dreams. His biggest opportunity to be ateam’s primary kicker occurred in 2021 with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Wright played in 14 games, made 87% of his field goals, and had a long of 56 yards. Despite putting up solid numbers and even winning the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week, Wrightwas released by the Jaguars.
Since then, Wright has bounced from team to team, never finding a place where he stayed long. However, he has still been productive in his short stints, including last season with the Kansas City Chiefs. Wright filled in for an injured Harrison Butker for two games and went 4-for-4 in theChiefs’ AFC West clinching game against the Los Angeles Chargers. For his efforts, Wrightwas awarded once again the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week.
Wrightwas let go once Butker came back, but being a hired gun is something Wright is used to, as his agent, Paul Sheehy, told Jarrett Bell ofUSA Today.
“He’s been kind of the hired gun, which is good and bad,”Sheehy said. “At some point, ateam’s got to recognize him for what he is, a really good kicker in this league, and not just look at him as, ‘Well, we know if our guy goes down, we can bring him in.’”
Now, on the Panthers, Wright is finally hoping to secure a starting kicker role again. Wright so far has averaged more yards per kickoff than Ryan Fitzgerald, with 60 yards to his 56 yards per attempt. However, Wright has missed his only field goal attempt from 55 yards, compared to Fitzgerald making his two attempts from 32 and 52 yards respectively.
The Case For Ryan Fitzgerald
Ryan Fitzgerald is coming to the Panthers with hype around him. Coming out of Florida State, he was a first-team All-American last season, and over his previous two college seasons, he only missed two out of 34 field goal attempts.
Fitzgerald, though, did have a rough patch this Summer when, at the Panthers Fan Fest event held in front of a Bank of America Stadium crowd, Fitzgerald missed two out of the three field goals he took, according toJoe Person of The Athletic. The misses were from 40 and 48 yards, respectively.
Head coach Dave Canales took a more glass-half-full approach to the assessment ofFitzgerald’s outing, citing him kicking on regular goal posts instead of skinny posts used in prior practices, as Anthony Rizzuti ofPanthers Wire wrote about.
“Yeah, it was good to see him with the whole environment,”he replied. “And even right there, that situation was down three [points], to tie it up, to go to overtime. So a little extra added pressure.”
Fitzgerald so far has adjusted to kicking in game situations, nailing both of his field goal attempts this preseason. He will attempt to fully separate himself from Matthew Wright when the two have their final battle against the Steelers.