The Cowboys have taken an early offseason step toward addressing one of 2021’s trouble spots.
Chris Naggar, a kicker out of SMU, has been signed by the team to a futures contract for 2022. His addition should send an obvious signal to veteran Greg Zuerlein that he’ll have some competition heading into next season. Zuerlein was a sixth-round draft pick by the Rams in 2012 and was the league points leader and a Pro Bowler in 2017, but he struggled in his second year with the Cowboys.
Naggar, 24, was a punter at Texas before transferring to SMU and moving to full-time placekicking. As a senior with the Mustangs, Naggar went 17-for-21 on field goals and 43-of-46 on extra points to lead the conference in accuracy. He went undrafted last year, but spent part of training camp with the Jets.
Cleveland signed him just before the season; he did not play in the Browns’ Week 1 game and was then moved back to the practice squad. Late in the season, he made the active roster again as a COVID replacement, kicking a 37-yard field goal and going 1-of-2 on PATs on Christmas Day versus the Packers. He was released by the team a few days later.
How about them Cowboys! Chris is excited to be back in Dallas kicking for his hometown team this upcoming season! #HCfamily pic.twitter.com/7fbYQSACEo
— Nathan Shackelford (@nathanshack19) February 2, 2022
For the Cowboys, Naggar will be expected to push the squad’s 10-year veteran for a job. Zuerlein was 83% on field goals in 2021 and missed six PATs, the most in his career. He missed a field goal in three of the Cowboys’ five regular-season losses; those games- against Tampa Bay, Las Vegas, and Arizona- were decided by three points or less.
Cowboys special teams coordinator John Fassel defended his longtime kicker all year, but finally admitted last month that missing the offseason (due to back surgery) had affected Zuerlein throughout the ’21 campaign.
“I think it is psychological,” Fassel told reporters.
The coach also talked about being able to recognize when a kicker- for whatever reason- simply no longer has the goods to deliver on gameday.
“There might come a time where, yeah, he doesn’t get it back. But this time isn’t now,” Fassel said. “I love Greg, and I believe in Greg, and I’m not supporting him just because of my experience over the last 10 years. This is a production business, and when we stop producing, things change. But I just have full faith in Greg. I do, and if I’m wrong, then I’ll be wrong. But [I] just really think that I’m going to be right. I guess we’ll see.”
Naggar could help bring some clarity to that evaluation process.
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