The New York Giants will be employing a new placekicker this season after nearly a decade of stability at the position.
The New York Giants have not had many placekickers in the past decade. Lawrence Tynes held the job from 2007-2012 and kicked the Giants to two Super Bowls. John Carney spelled Tynes in 2008 after Tynes went down to a knee injury and made the Pro Bowl. Josh Brown took over in 2013 and was released midway through the 2016 season after a history of domestic violence was uncovered. The Giants then brought in veteran Robbie Gould, who finished out the year, but signed with San Francisco in free agency this offseason.
Gould’s expected defection means the Giants will be looking for a new kicker this season. They currently have just one kicker under contract at the moment, Aldrick Rosas, an undrafted free agent out of Southern Oregon who was signed and cut by the Tennessee Titans last summer. Rosas was then tried out by the Minnesota Vikings and Dallas Cowboys but not signed.
Last week, after the draft, GM Jerry Reese was asked the million-dollar question about who would be doing the kicking for the Giants and if they planned on bringing in any other kickers to challenge Rosas.
“We’ll continue to look at that,” Reese said. “We have a young kid (Rosas) on the roster with a big leg that we want to take a look at and see how he looks in the spring. There’s always going to be veteran kickers out there available. We will see where that goes. There will be free agency after the draft here and we will see what’s left out there after that as well.”
According to SNY’s Ralph Vacchiano, the Giants will be trying out Felix Menard-Briere of the University of Montreal at their rookie minicamp this weekend.
Reese apparently doesn’t like what he sees out on the open market right now, and who can blame him? Dan Carpenter, Mike Nugget? No, thanks. Let’s give Rosas a shot and see where they are at training camp.
