Kickers are nothing if not streaky. At the moment, Joey Slye seems to be in a bit of a rut. In Sunday’s loss to the Vikings, the Panthers’ kicker missed what would have been a game-winning 54-yard field goal, bringing his percentage for the season down to 77.4%. That’s lower than his rookie year.
Yesterday, the team brought in three free agent kickers for visits. Here is a look at who came in.
Chandler Catanzaro
The big name and the only real potential threat to Slye is Catanzaro, who has played 77 games in the NFL, including four with the Panthers back in 2018. He made all five of his field goal attempts and seven of eight extra points during that run. For his career, he’s 83.8% on field goals and 92.9% on XPs.
Lirim Hajrullahu
The next candidate comes via the CFL. Hajrullahu spent the last two seasons with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats after two years with the Toronto Argonauts. In 72 games, he’s connected on 91.7% of his field goals, including 14 of 16 from 50 yards or more. He’s 134/143 on extra points (93.7%).
Louie Zervos
Last but not least, Zervos is a product of Ohio, where he put together an impressive college career. Zervos made 73 of 90 field goal attempts (81.1%) and 218 of 224 extra points (97.3%).
Most likely the idea isn’t for any of them to replace Slye. Instead, they could be in the running for the emergency kicker spot that has changed hands a few times this season. Lately, it’s been Taylor Bertolet, who was released again a few days ago.
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