Kaare Vedvik has found his next NFL gig. The veteran kicker has joined the Jaguars practice squad, reports NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero (via Twitter).
After going undrafted in 2018, Vedvik had an impressive preseason debut with the Ravens, and the Titans sent Baltimore a fifth-round pick to compete for the starting kicking gig. The rookie ended up losing out to veteran Dan Bailey, and Vedvik has bounced around the NFL ever since. In three years, the special teamer has also spent time with the Jets, Bengals, Bills, Panthers, and Washington. Despite his lengthy resume, Vedvik has only seen time in one game, when he missed a field goal and extra point in a 2019 contest with the Jets.
The 27-year-old spent the 2020 campaign bouncing between Buffalo, Carolina, and Washington. WFT retained him via a reserve/futures contract during the offseason, but he was waived in late January.
Josh Lambo and Logan Cooke are locked in as Jacksonville’s kicker and punter, respectively. Vedvik played both of those roles during his time in college, making him an intriguing and versatile option for the scout team.
Man do kickers get a lot of chances in this league
There are a couple of good reasons for that. First off, they don’t cost much relative to other positional players and secondly the difference between having a good kicker and bad kicker is generally 2 or 3 wins over the course of a season. That’s plenty of incentive for GMs to keep trying to find the right guy.
CORRECTION: It was the Vikings that traded a 5th to the Ravens for Vedvik, not the Titans.
link to prosportstransactions.com
At what point does a player become a veteran? I don’t think I would have considered three years, but then again, isn’t that about the average player’s career?
There is the technical definition of a veteran as defined by the NFLPA and then there is a subjective definition based on maturity, character, leadership qualities etc. I think the average career is about 4.5 seasons.