The Tennessee Titans’ kicker competition is fully underway, with both Caleb Shudak and Trey Wolff vying for the lone kicking job on the roster in training camp.
And as we now enter the second week, the battle between both guys is about as close as you could possibly get. Tennessee’s two kickers have only missed two field goals each since the start of training camp, according to the numbers collected by Jim Wyatt of Titans Online.
Kicker Trey Wolff was 7-of-8 in practice, with makes from 42, 34, 38, 33, 52, 33 and 54, and a miss from 46. He’s now 26-of-28 in camp. Kicker Caleb Shudak did not kick in the team period, and he’s 18-of-20 in camp.
Wolff has made 26 of his 28 kicks (92 percent), while Shudak has gone 18-of-20 (90 percent). In the last two days, Wolff didn’t kick on Monday and Shudak didn’t kick on Tuesday.
Here’s what Wyatt wrote about Shudak on Monday:
Kicker Caleb Shudak was 7-of-8 in today’s practice, and he’s now 18-of-20 in camp. Shudak was good from 42, 34, 46, 33, 52, 33 and 54 yards, with a miss from 38 yards.
While both kickers have displayed leg strength early on with makes over 50 yards, John Glennon of Nashville Post made it a point to mention Wolff’s powerful leg on Tuesday.
FG update: Wolff good on 7 of 8, misses from 46. No doubt about his leg strength, though
— John Glennon (@glennonsports) August 1, 2023
During his time at Texas Tech, Wolff only attempted two field goals of 50-plus yards (2-for-2), but his leg strength consistently showed on kickoffs, producing a touchback on approximately 54 percent of his kicks in 2022, subsequently leading to a kickoff grade of 73.7, per Pro Football Focus.
As for Shudak, he may not have the powerful leg that crushes the ball on contact, but the former Big-10 kicker consistently proved throughout his college career that he’s capable of performing in whatever elements are thrown his way.
The second-year kicker currently holds the Iowa record for career field-goal percentage (minimum 25 attempts) at 82.8 percent (24-29).
Regardless of how well these guys are doing right now, this position battle will ultimately be settled in the preseason. It’s nice to see these kickers do well in practice, but if they fold when the pressure is really on in a game situation, then the team will have to go in another direction.
Obviously, the preseason attempts don’t matter much in the grand scheme of things, but the reality is, they’re kicking for their job at that point. So even if the final score doesn’t really matter, you can bet the pressure will be on them whenever they trot on that field.
Nevertheless, keep your eyes peeled on how these practices are playing out because something like that could end up being the tiebreaker should both kickers perform well in the team’s upcoming three preseason games.
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