Cut by the Seahawks, Jason Myers is having a sensational year kicking for the New York Jets

The Seattle Seahawks had a brief kicker competition this offseason and through preseason, as Sebastian Janikowski unsurprisingly beat out former Jacksonville Jaguars kicker Jason Myers for the starting job. Janikowski was always the favorite to get the job, especially given Myers’ track record in his brief time in the NFL was bad, and Seabass has proven he still has a booming leg at 40 years old.

Myers was signed by the New York Jets shortly after the Seahawks released him, and in his fourth season in the NFL, he’s been outstanding.

Through ten games, Myers is 21/23 (91.3%) on field goal attempts, and 19/20 (95%) on PATs. He does admittedly have an awful miss from 30 yards away, but he’s still on pace for the best season of his career. Myers has hit 4/5 from 50+ yards, a major improvement from his 10/19 with the Jaguars in his three seasons there. Among qualified kickers, Myers is tied with Jacksonville’s Josh Lambo for 10th in FG success rate this season, and 4th among all kickers with at least 20 FG attempts. The Jets obviously stink, but the 27-year-old Myers has been a rare bright spot on a sinking ship.

As for Janikowski, to his credit he’s not missed an extra point, and just on memory alone he’s not really been close to missing any of them. However, he is 10/14 (71.4%) on field goals, including the two misses (which may have not been his fault) against the Arizona Cardinals that were offset by his game-winner as time expired. Seabass also had two bites at the cherry against the Denver Broncos, going wide left on a kick that was waved off because Denver was offsides, only to miss from five yards closer. Against the Los Angeles Chargers, he hit the upright on a 51-yarder that kept the scoreline at 12-7.

Janikowski’s field goal accuracy throughout his entire 18-year career is hardly amazing at 80.2%, but he’s currently in the bottom-tier of field goal percentage in 2018. Alongside Seabass are the likes of Chandler Catanzaro (cut by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers), Caleb Sturgis (cut by the Los Angeles Chargers), Matt McCrane (cut by the Oakland Raiders), and Daniel Carson (cut by the Minnesota Vikings). To be fair once more to Janikowski, Catanzaro and Sturgis had multiple missed PATs that expedited their departures, so if you want to look at combining FGs and PATs, Janikowski has only missed four kicks all season.

I admit I was dead wrong about Myers, who has turned his career around for the better, so good for him. It sure does raise the question that may be more important than we think during Seattle’s attempts to rally for a playoff spot... are we sure the Seahawks kept the right kicker?