Every team in the NFL has at least one kicker, including the Rams. But after the Green Bay Packers signed Greg Joseph on Tuesday, only one team has a kicker with no experience and who is unlikely to be the Week 1 kicker: The L.A. Rams.
The Packers signed Joseph to a one-year deal, as he joins a kicker named John Parker Romo on the roster. The Rams only have Tanner Brown, last year’s undrafted free agent who lost a kicking competition in camp and is the only kicker from 2023 to survive for a potential competition in 2024.
What will the L.A. Rams do at kicker?
The Green Bay Packers are signing my client Greg Joseph who kicked for the Minnesota Vikings the past 3 seasons. Holds the NFL record for game-winners in a season (5), Vikings record for longest FG (61 yds), & led NFL in TB% in '21. Had other interest but liked this opportunity.
— Brett Tessler (@TesslerSports) March 26, 2024
The only relevant free agent still remaining on the free agent list at Spotrac is veteran Randy Bullock. He went 5-of-6 with the Giants last year.
Among former Rams kickers around the league, you’ve got Greg Zuerlein on the Jets, Lucas Havrisik is one of three kickers on the Browns, and Matt Gay is on the Colts. Recent kicking options like Kai Forbath and Sam Sloman don’t seem to be in the circle of potential additions anymore.
What will Rams do?
There are two options and they might be related:
1) The Rams draft or sign a kicker after the draft.
2) The Rams trade for or sign a kicker who doesn’t make his team out of training camp.
They could do both of these things. They will probably at least do the first thing.
It is now common for there to be a “kicker carousel” at the end of training camp, as at least half of the league will go into camp with two or three kickers on the roster. They’ll have to cut one. That puts 16 more options on the table and that will come from the pool of kickers currently on teams that L.A. can’t have quite yet. I would guess that Sean McVay’s constant luck of urgency at the kicker position is based in a philosophy that good kickers can be found any time of year, which is what led to Gay’s signing in 2020.
However, this is a risk and it has come to bite the Rams in the past.
But I do appreciate McVay’s awareness that urgency at the kicker position in March may not matter that much.
As the draft goes, I believe the Rams will make more than 10 picks and that could include a kicker. I don’t want to tell you that I know who the best kicker to draft would be because every time I do that, I’m relying on someone else’s opinion because I don’t follow draft kickers. Inevitably when I say “This kicker is the highest rated”, someone will comment that the kicker is being really overrated...and that could very well be true!
Instead, here’s a list of kicker prospects at BNB Football and five names from it, in no order: Harrison Mevis, Missouri; Cam Little, Arkansas; Will Reichard, Alabama; Josh Karty, Stanford; Griffin Kell, TCU.
What will the Rams do at kicker? Same thing they always do...Not that much.