Tag: Lachlan Edwards

Watch: Panthers hold kicker tryouts during Week 15 pregame warmups

Watch as the Panthers try out a handful of kicking hopefuls less than an hour before their Week 15 contest.

With everything that has gone down between the Jacksonville Jaguars and now former head coach Urban Meyer, it’s really difficult to find a hotter mess in the NFL right now. But the Carolina Panthers may ask the Jaguars to hold their beer.

As if using an obnoxious two-quarterback approach after firing your offensive coordinator while riding an embarrassing three-game losing streak wasn’t enough, the Panthers lost kicker Zane Gonzalez to a quad injury during warmups on Sunday. The absence of Gonzalez, who’s been one of the few highlights of a dim 2021 campaign, then led to Carolina having to hold pregame tryouts for the vacant kicking duties.

And, uh, well . . .

The Panthers gauged the “services” of punter Lachlan Edwards, wide receiver Brandon Zylstra, running back Reggie Bonnafon and quarterback P.J. Walker prior to the Week 15 matchup against the Buffalo Bills. None of them, by the way (even Edwards), has attempted a field goal in their NFL careers.

Should be a fun one today, folks!

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Panthers place RG John Miller on IR, waive P Ryan Winslow

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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Chargers roster moves: 3 players released

Ahead of the mandatory roster cuts, the Chargers released three players.

Prior to signing long snapper Matt Overton, the Chargers released three players to get their roster down to 85 ahead of the mandatory roster cuts by 1 pm PT on Tuesday.

Los Angeles let go of kicker Alex Kessman, punter Lachlan Edwards and wide receiver Michael Bandy.

With Kessman gone, the competition for the starting kicker comes down to Michael Badgley and Tristan Vizcaino, while Ty Long now remains the only punter on the roster.

After the acquisition of Overton, the roster currently sits at 86 players, one more than the deadline threshold.

With Cole Mazza dealing with a shoulder injury that he sustained in the preseason opener, the plan could be to place him on the injured reserve, which would then meet the number requirement.

Or, the team could be intending to release another player by tomorrow.

Tennessee Titans hold tryouts with 4 punters ahead of Week 9

A Tennessee native is among the four punters the Titans are trying out.

With the status of punter Brett Kern up in the air for Week 9, the Tennessee Titans are taking a look at four punters via tryouts.

Per the league’s transactions wire, the Titans are worked out punters Ryan Allen, Dustin Colquitt, Lachlan Edwards and Trevor Daniel.

This would seem to indicate that the Titans are expecting Kern to miss time with a hand injury he suffered following a botched snap on an extra point attempt during the Week 8 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.

On Monday, Titans beat writer Paul Kuharsky reported that Kern “will miss time” with his injury, although it isn’t clear exactly how much.

Head coach Mike Vrabel told the media that Kern would undergo tests on Monday to determine the extent of his injury. We haven’t gotten any new information since he made that statement.

The Titans do have an in-house option in rookie kicker Tucker McCann, who handled kicking and punting duties in his final season at Missouri, but he has zero NFL experience.

All four of the aforementioned punters have NFL experience, with Colquitt, who is a native of Tennessee and attended both high school and college (University of Tennessee) in the state, leading the way with 16 seasons.

The veteran is a two-time Pro Bowler (2012 and 2016) and most recently played with the Pittsburgh Steelers this season before getting cut last month. He spent his first 15 seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Edwards and Allen have four and seven years of experience, respectively, and Daniel, who is also a Tennessee native and played his high school and college ball in the state, has just 18 career games under his belt. Neither of these three players have taken a snap in 2020, though.

Report: Titans to bring in P Lachlan Edwards for tryout

This would seem to indicate that Kern will in fact miss time due to injury.

With Tennessee Titans punter Brett Kern dealing with an injury, the team is reportedly going to take a look at another punter.

On Monday, Titans beat writer Paul Kuharsky reported that Kern “will miss time” with an injury he suffered in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.

Now, Terry McCormick of Titan Insider is reporting that the Titans are going to bring former New York Jets punter Lachlan Edwards in a for a tryout, which would seem to indicate that Kern’s could keep him out at least one game.

Titans head coach Mike Vrabel acknowledged yesterday that Kern was going for tests on his hand and that the team would know more about his status later in the day.

Another possible solution aside from bringing in a punter from outside the organization is to use rookie kicker Tucker McCann as a fill-in, as McCann handled both kicking and punting duties during his final season at Missouri. However, McCann has never kicked in a game in the NFL.

Edwards spent four seasons with the Jets, and in 2019 he led the NFL in punts and total punt yardage. The 28-year-old has averaged 45.5 yards per punt during his career.

Along with finding a fill-in at punter, the Titans will also have to decide who the holder will be for field goals. Quarterback Ryan Tannehill is currently listed as the team’s backup there on the depth chart.

Bills release K Stephen Hauschka, P Lachlan Edwards

The Buffalo Bills have released kicker Stephen Hauschka and punter Lachlan Edwards.

The Buffalo Bills have released kicker Stephen Hauschka and punter Lachlan Edwards, the team announced Thursday afternoon.

Perhaps the more notable cut, Hauschka initially joined Buffalo’s roster in the 2017 offseason. He was stellar in his first season, making 88% of his kicks for a Bills team that broke its long-standing playoff drought.

Hauschka struggled to maintain consistency, however, making just 78% of his field goal attempts in his second season with the Bills. Despite his shaky campaign, Buffalo’s brass maintained confidence in Hauschka, inking him to a two-year extension shortly before the start of the 2019 season.

Though the veteran kicker wasn’t necessarily a liability for the Bills in his third season with the team, he wasn’t automatic, either, again making just 78% of his kicks.

Buffalo added competition for Hauschka in the 2020 offseason in the form of Tyler Bass, a kicker out of Georgia Southern whom the Bills selected in the sixth-round of the 2020 draft. Bass, a 23-year-old with a cannon for a leg, apparently showed more promise than Hauschka in training camp, prompting the Bills to move on their stalwart at kicker.

The move gives Hauschka a bit more than two weeks to latch on with another team before the start of the regular season.

While Hauschka leaves Buffalo after a three-year stint, Edwards leaves after a one-week stay. The Bills signed the veteran punter on Aug. 19 to compete with Corey Bojorquez for the punting job. Though circumstances could change in the weeks leading up to the regular season, it looks as though Bojorquez is in line to hold onto his role as the team’s starting punter.

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4 things to know about new Bills punter Lachlan Edwards

Get to know new Buffalo Bills punter Lachlan Edwards here.

There’s a new punter in town, and he’s a long ways away from home. The Buffalo Bills announced on Wednesday that former Jets punter Lachlan Edwards was signed by the team.

Edwards, 29, spent the last four seasons with New York, so his name comes as one you’ve likely seen before. But the most interesting part about him is his Australian roots as a native of Mornington, Victoria.

Let’s get to that and more by getting to know the new Bills punter now. Here’s four things to know about Edwards:

The numbers for the draft pick

It’s a bit of a rarity in the NFL, but kickers do get selected at the draft. Edwards had exactly that happen to him. In 2016, the Jets selected Edwards with a seventh-round pick out of Sam Houston State.

Since then, Edwards has had some positive displays in the NFL. But Edwards was picked by a former front office regime leading Gang Green and their current one, led by general manager Joe Douglas, selected Texas A&M punter Braden Mann at the recent draft so it was clear Edwards was destined to not return to New York.

With the Jets, Edwards averaged 45.5 yards per punt and had 108 punts inside the 20-yard line in 2020. In his four-year career, he’s captured the three-highest net punt averages in Jets history. He was the NFL punting yards leader in 2019 as well with 3,991.

But punting is complex, so there’s plenty of other numbers to consider with Edwards, too. He had a career-high 41.6 net punting average last season, which was the 12th best in the league. If you’re looking for fancy stats, Football Outsides gave the Jets the fourth-highest punting DOVA number a year ago, 10.1. The Bills had the fourth-worst at -9.4.

Edwards came a long way in his brief career so far as well. He finished his rookie season last in the league in net punting average (37.3) and 28th in yards per punt (43.1). So he’s a guy that will work to improve his craft, certainly.

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Bills release Kaare Vedvik, sign P Lachlan Edwards

Buffalo Bills sign new punter during 2020 training camp.

The Buffalo Bills are done with one old Jets international punter and are signing… another international ex-Jets punter. The team announced on Wednesday that punter Lachlan Edwards was added to the roster.

In a corresponding move, punter Kaare Vedvik (born in Norway) was released by the team after only three days of full training camp practice. On Tuesday the Bills had worked out Edwards along with former Falcons punter Matt Bosher, according to the NFL’s daily workout log.

Edwards, a seventh-round pick of the Jets in 2016, spent the past four seasons with Gang Green. He’s averaged 45.5 yards per punt. The 29-year-old is a native of Australia. Edwards and Vedvik were teammates together with the Jets for a short time in last season.

Edwards will join the Bills looking to beat the team’s incumbent punter Corey Bojorquez for the team’s starting spot. Bojorquez, a left-footed kicker, has played for the Bills since 2018.

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Bills hold workouts with free agent punters

Buffalo Bills host two punters for free agent workouts.

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The Bills entered training camp with a few legs the coaching staff is keeping a close eye on. Specifically, there’s two punters battling for the team’s starting job in 2020.

Corey Bojorquez is the team’s left-footed incumbent while Kaare Vedvik, who’s also tried his hand at placekicking in the NFL, is the other. But there might be a chance that the Bills bring some more fresh blood in.

According to the NFL’s daily report on team workouts, the Bills hosted two punters for workouts on Tuesday. Those two were Lachlan Edwards and Matt Bosher.

Edwards, a seventh-round pick of the Jets in 2016, spent the past four seasons with Gang Green. He’s averaged 45.5 yards per punt. The twist with Edwards? The 29-year-old is a native of Australia.

Bosher, 32, has a few more years of experience on Edwards. He was also a former drafted kicker as well, a sixth-round pick of the Falcons back in 2011. Bosher has a career average of 45.7 yards per punt. In 2019, he was held to five games played due to a groin injury.

Worth noting, this doesn’t exactly mean that the Bills don’t like Bojorquez and/ or Vedvik. Teams often will workout players to keep them in mind later down the road, too. That could be cause of an injury, or perhaps because a season en route comes with no preseason games due to a global pandemic. If the Bills do pick Bojorquez or Vedvik but their efforts are poor in the regular season, except these two new workouts to also be on the team’s radar as replacements.

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Bill sign ex-Jets punter Lachlan Edwards

Lachlan Edwards worked out for the Bills, while Doug Middleton worked out for the Colts.

Update Aug. 19, 2020, 4:47 p.m.

The Bills have signed ex-Jets punter Lachlan Edwards, per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero. To make room for Edwards, Buffalo cut another ex-Jet, legman Kaare Vedvik.

A couple of former Jets are garnering some interest around the league.

According to the NFL’s transaction wire, ex-Jets punter Lachlan Edwards worked out for the Buffalo Bills on Tuesday, while former Jets safety Doug Middleton worked out for the Indianapolis Colts.

Edwards spent the first four years of his career as a Jet after being picked by them in the seventh round out of Sam Houston State in 2016. He came over to the United States to play college football after growing up in Australia.

With the Jets, Edwards averaged 45.5 yards per punt and had 108 punts inside the 20-yard line. He was the NFL punting yards leader in 2019 as well. New York decided not to re-sign Edwards after drafting Braden Mann.

As for Middleton, he was with the Jets from 2016-2018 after going undrafted out of Appalachian State in 2016. He missed the 2017 season due to a pectoral injury but did start in four games in his time in New York. Middleton had 33 total tackles and four pass defenses with the Jets. He spent the 2019 season with the Dolphins and Jaguars.