Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
How many of the 19 ex-Lions do you remember?
The new season the XFL kicks off this weekend. Fans tuning into the spring football league will recognize many of the names, including several former Lions.
There are ex-Lions dotting the rosters of the eight XFL teams. Many were only in Detroit for a quick stop, be it a training camp or draft pick or practice squad stint. But they still earned recognition as Detroit Lions at some point.
Here are the players in the XFL with Lions ties.
Here are a few kickers on the street the Chargers could bring in.
With Dustin Hopkins added to the injury report with a quad injury, the Chargers could potentially be in the band-aid kicker market.
With minor injuries like Hopkins’, teams usually sign a player to their practice squad and use one of that player’s three elevations to avoid using two roster spots on a kicker. Therefore, poaching a kicker from another team’s practice squad is probably not a viable option.
Here are a few kickers on the street Los Angeles could bring in.
Rodrigo Blankenship
Blankenship was cut by the Colts after Week 1 this season and has yet to land a new job despite missing just one kick in Indianapolis’ season opener. Historically, Blankenship is an accurate short-distance kicker: on field goals 39 yards or shorter, he’s missed only twice in his 22-game career. He’s also 52 of 55 on extra points. The problems start from 40 yards and out, where Blankenship is 16 of 23 and just 1 of 4 on kicks 50 or more yards. The former Georgia kicker has also suffered a hip injury that cut his 2021 season to just five games. Hip injuries are often career killers for kickers. But for a team as aggressive on fourth down as the Chargers, an accurate short kicker could be all they need.
Dominik Eberle
Eberle was in the NFL most recently of the names on this list, kicking for the Lions in Week 4. Unfortunately, he missed two extra points and barely snuck his other kicks inside the uprights in a game Detroit only lost by two points. Eberle was cut partially because incumbent kicker Austin Seibert should be back from injury this week, but Detroit added Michael Badgley on Tuesday as insurance rather than sticking with Eberle. Still, the NFL by and large tries out the same cadre of kickers over an entire season, and Eberle has most recently won one of those tryouts. Keep an eye on him as a potential visitor in the coming days.
Ryan Santoso
If your concern is kickoffs, might I recommend the big-legged Santoso, who has the power to drive every kickoff into or out the back of the end zone? Santoso spent most of this preseason in Jacksonville, where special teams coordinator Heath Farwell described his leg strength as “elite.” Despite that, he was released before playing a regular season game with Jacksonville, who opted to add other teams’ cast-offs and hold a brand new competition leading up to Week 1. As a result, Santoso only has seven career games across the 2019 and 2021 seasons under his belt, missing one field goal and two extra points in those opportunities.
Nick Sciba
The most accurate kicker in college football history, I was a bit surprised that Sciba didn’t catch on anywhere else after spending a few months as Chris Boswell’s understudy. Usually, kickers that sign to teams with established starters do so as an internship before landing somewhere else and earning a job. (Think of every Ravens kicker they’ve traded for late-round picks while Justin Tucker has been there.) Sciba never missed an extra point in his Wake Forest career and went 80 of 89 on field goals, but his career-long was 49 yards. Whether that was a Demon Deacon thing or a Nick Sciba thing is a question that’s largely gone unanswered, but the fact that he’s still on the street in Week 5 tells me his leg is probably far from the strongest.
Elliott Fry
Fry is perhaps best known as being the Falcons’ practice squad yo-yo last season, but he’s also spent time on eight other NFL teams as the perpetual 33rd-best kicker in the league. In three career games split between Atlanta, Cincinnati, and Kansas City, Fry is 5 of 6 on field goals and 5 of 7 on extra points. He lost a competition in Jacksonville to Santoso because of a hip injury, which could also explain why he hasn’t been picked up by a new team yet. Fry was also not among the group of kickers Detroit worked out on Tuesday before signing Badgley. That group included Sam Ficken, Lirim Hajrullahu, Brian Johnson, and Andrew Mevis. Perhaps that means Fry is not yet healthy. But if he is, the Chargers giving him his tenth NFL uniform may be in the cards.
Eberle missed two extra points in his one and only Lions appearance
The Dominik Eberle era in Detroit lasted all of one afternoon. Detroit’s replacement kicker for Week 4 will not get a chance to redeem himself after his rough initial outing.
The Lions waived Eberle on Tuesday, two days after Eberle missed two extra points in the team’s 48-45 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. He also launched a kickoff out of bounds that set up Seattle with good field position.
Eberle was filling in for the injured Austin Seibert, who could return for the Week 5 matchup in New England. The Lions did work out four free agent kickers on Tuesday but did not immediately sign any of them.
The four kickers who worked out in Allen Park:
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The Lions had a couple of great special teams plays but also some very costly mistakes
Detroit’s offense in Week 4 was great, scoring 45 points. The Lions defense was inept, surrendering 48 to the visiting Seahawks. But what about the third unit, the special teams?
It was an interesting afternoon for coach Dave Fipp’s punt and kick units.
Early on, special teams was about the only thing working for the Lions. Rookie LB Malcolm Rodriguez forced a fumble on Jack Fox’s first punt. Detroit quickly cashed that takeaway in for a pretty Jared Goff-to-T.J. Hockenson touchdown strike. Later in the first quarter, Fox found Quintez Cephus with an accurate dart and converted the fake punt on fourth down. Maurice Alexander, called up from the practice squad, had a nice kickoff return in there too.
Fake punt! The Lions successfully converted from inside their own territory.
Video: @Lions pic.twitter.com/n9qmCCdgD8
— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) October 2, 2022
Yet even the good special teams came with some warts. Kicker Dominik Eberle, signed off the practice squad on Saturday due to an injury to Austin Seibert, missed the extra point after the first Hockenson touchdown. Eberle booted a kickoff out of bounds, leading to a Seahawks field goal. Alexander ran into a wall at the 16-yard line on the subsequent Lions return, setting up some bad field position.
But Eberle wasn’t done. He missed a second extra point late in the second quarter. What should have been a 24-17 deficit was instead a two-score margin at the half. In a game where the Lions defense did not stop the Seahawks once, every point was critical.
Think about it this way: if Eberle hits those two routine extra points, the Lions are going for the tie on their last touchdown — or even another 2-pt. conversion and the potential late lead.
Injuries to several regulars forced the Lions to scramble just to have enough healthy bodies to play in Week 4
The Lions will have a new kicker for the Week 4 game against the Seattle Seahawks in Ford Field. With regular kicker Austin Seibert ruled out with a groin injury, the Lions signed kicker Dominik Eberle from the practice squad. The Lions also signed offensive lineman Dan Skipper from the practice squad to the active roster.
Injuries to several regulars forced them to scramble just to have enough healthy bodies to play. That was compounded with the team downgrading WR DJ Chark to out for Sunday’s game.
Detroit also promoted wide receivers Tom Kennedy and Maurice Alexander from the practice squad. Chark joins fellow starting WR Amon-Ra St. Brown as being ruled out. Josh Reynolds is questionable for Sunday’s game.
To make room for Skipper and Eberle, the Lions waived TE Shane Zylstra and OL Drew Forbes.
It will be Eberle’s first appearance in a Lions uniform. The team signed the young journeyman kicker to the practice squad after the roster cutdowns. Eberle has played in exactly one NFL game, Week 8 last year for the Houston Texans when he filled in for an injured Kai’mi Fairbairn. The 26-year-old Eberle made two of his three FG attempts in that game.
Skipper has started the last two games at left guard and has played capably. Forbes has been a healthy scratch all season.
The Lions placed K Aldrick Rosas on the practice squad IR and signed Dominik Eberle to take his place
A weird week on the Detroit Lions injury front took another bizarre turn on Friday. The Lions announced they have placed practice squad kicker Aldrick Rosas on the practice squad/injured reserve list barely a week after signing him.
To replace Rosas, the Lions signed free agent Dominik Eberle to the practice squad. Eberle, 26, has bounced around several NFL practice squads since coming out of Utah State in 2020. He has one game of regular-season experience, making 2-of-3 field goals for the Houston Texans in Week 16 last season.
Regular kicker Austin Seibert missed Wednesday’s practice session but returned at full speed for both Thursday and Friday. Seibert will handle the kicking duties when the Lions host the Philadelphia Eagles at Ford Field on Sunday — barring any other unforeseen injuries.
#Lions have signed K Dominik Eberle to the Practice Squad and placed K Aldrick Rosas on Practice Squad/Injured
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) September 9, 2022
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The Packers signed kicker Dominik Eberle. The question now becomes: Who is he competing with? JJ Molson or Mason Crosby?
The Green Bay Packers added another kicker to the offseason roster on Tuesday. The team signed Dominik Eberle, an undrafted free agent who was once a collegiate teammate of quarterback Jordan Love.
Eberle went undrafted out of Utah State in 2020 but has spent time with the Las Vegas Raiders, Carolina Panthers and Houston Texans at the NFL level. In one regular-season appearance, Eberle made 2-of-3 field goals (long of 51) and five extra points as a member of the Texans last season.
Eberle joins Mason Crosby and JJ Molson on the roster at kicker. The move suggests the Packers could be making a move at the position soon, with the possibility of Crosby – the franchise’s all-time leader in points scored – becoming a cap casualty.
General manager Brian Gutekunst will have to decide: Is Eberle going to be competition for Crosby or Molson?
As Aaron Nagler of Cheesehead TV pointed out, Eberle had a chance to work with new Packers special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia while with the Raiders.
Eberle is Utah State’s record holder in points and field goals made. He connected on 167 straight extra points attempts (another school record) and finished 64 out of 81 on field goal attempts (79 percent). He made 4-of-7 attempts over 50 yards, with a long of 52. As a senior, he made a school-record 87.5 percent of his field goals (21-of-24). Over four seasons at Utah State, Eberle increased his field goal percentage each season.
The Packers won’t be expected to keep three kickers on the 90-man roster for long.
Crosby is coming off his worst professional season, will turn 38 years old in September and is scheduled to count $4.73 million against the cap in 2022. The Packers had Molson on the practice squad as a protected player for much of the 2021 season, but he has limited experience.
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The Panthers made a handful of roster moves on Tuesday, including the placement of starting RG John Miller on the IR.
Carolina Panthers starting right guard John Miller has had a bumpy ride here in 2021. And although he’s been repeatedly heralded as one, tough customer by head coach Matt Rhule, the 6-foot-3, 315-pounder won’t find a way to grind through this one.
Miller exited Sunday’s loss to the New York Giants after sustaining what Rhule described on Monday as a “pretty bad ankle sprain.” That sprain has now been determined to be serious enough for an injured reserve stint.
The team announced the placement of Miller on the IR Tuesday. He will miss, at least, the next three games.
This latest absence will force the Panthers to, once again, rework their offensive line. If starting left guard Pat Elflein—who has yet to be activated after wrapping up his stay on IR—is still not good to go himself, that’ll complicate the matter even more for an already struggling unit.
Rookie Brady Christensen, Michael Jordan, Dennis Daley and/or Trent Scott will be the team’s options in filling one or perhaps both of those guard positions.
The Panthers, additionally, have waived punter Ryan Winslow. The 27-year-old played in the last two games for Carolina, totaling 13 punts for an average of 38.6 yards per attempt.
As a result, they’ve signed Lachlan Edwards—now the current favorite to take over punting duties starting in Week 8—to the practice squad. Kicker Dominik Eberle was released to make room for Edwards.
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On Tuesday, the Panthers kicked Ryan Santoso out and brought summer tryout Zane Gonzalez back in.
The Carolina Panthers liked kicker Ryan Santoso. But, apparently, they like that seventh-round pick a little more.
As first reported by Joseph Person of The Athletic, the Panthers have cut Santoso after just one regular season outing. His release now returns the conditional seventh-round selection from the New York Giants back to the Panthers since Santoso did not stick on the active roster for two games.
Santoso’s clock starting ticking early in Week 1, when head coach Matt Rhule denied him a chance at a 52-yard field goal in the first quarter of the opener against the New York Jets. The 6-foot-5, 250-pounder, in what was his second strike of the afternoon, then missed an extra point try following a 57-yard touchdown reception by wideout Robby Anderson.
Rhule noted on Monday that the team was still holding a competition for the kicker’s spot going into the week, with challenger Dominik Eberle hanging around on the practice squad. Eberle may not be Carolina’s guy going into the Week 2 showdown with the New Orleans Saints, but it definitely won’t be Santoso.
Their guy, instead, may be Zane Gonzalez, whose signing was subsequently announced by the team following the Santoso departure. Gonzalez, plucked off the Detroit Lions practice squad, had spent time with Carolina as a tryout player during the summer.
Over his four seasons, the 26-year-old has converted on 71 of his 91 field goal attempts (78 percent) and 105 of his 111 extra points (94.6 percent).
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The Panthers rounded out their practice squad on Monday with WR/KR Alex Erickson and two familiar faces.
The Carolina Panthers rounded out their 16-man practice squad on Monday, according to multiple reports.
Wideout Alex Erickson, the most notable presence of the three newbies, may be in line to take over return duties as soon as Sunday. As first reported by Joseph Person of The Athletic, the sixth-year veteran was added following a visit with the team this past Friday.
Erickson specializes in, well, special teams—specifically in a spot where the Panthers particularly lack. The former Cincinnati Bengal has fielded 135 punts and 108 kickoffs in his career, with averages of 8.0 yards and 24.7 yards per attempt, respectively.
As also noted by Person, another special teamer in Dominik Eberle will join in on the squad as well. The second-year kicker was initially taken in by Carolina two weeks ago as competition for the now-departed Joey Slye. He and Syle would, obviously, lose out to current starter Ryan Santoso.
Guard Mike Horton, who was also brought back after being recently cut, makes for 16. The 2020 undrafted free agent played in two games for the Panthers last season.
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