Today’s minor moves:
Denver Broncos
Houston Texans
Kansas City Chiefs
New Orleans Saints
San Francisco 49ers
Today’s minor moves around the NFL:
Baltimore Ravens
Buffalo Bills
Carolina Panthers
Chicago Bears
Denver Broncos
Houston Texans
Indianapolis Colts
Kansas City Chiefs
New York Giants
Philadelphia Eagles
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Washington Commanders
The Seahawks may be close to bringing Kenny Young back to the NFC West. Seattle hosted the veteran linebacker on a visit over the weekend, reports ESPN’s Field Yates (on Twitter).
The 27-year-old began his career with the Ravens in 2018. By the midway point of his second season, however, he had been traded to the Rams, with whom he made 13 starts in 32 appearances. This past October, the UCLA product found himself being traded again, this time to the Broncos.
Young’s tenure in Denver – only six games in length, but one which saw him play the second-highest snap share of his career – landed him a contract with the Raiders in May. He was released last week, however, leaving him in need of a new landing spot. The Seahawks are projected to start Jordyn Brooks and Cody Barton at linebacker this season, but they could use depth at the second level after parting ways with Bobby Wagner and electing not to reunite with K.J. Wright this offseason.
Here’s a quick round-up of some other recent workouts around the NFL:
The Week 1 status of Packers kicker Mason Crosby is up in the air, and the organization is eyeing some free agents in case they need reinforcement. According to ProFootballNetwork.com’s Aaron Wilson, the Packers worked out kickers Matt Ammendola, Chase McLaughlin, Chandler Staton, and Parker White today (Twitter link). The team also auditioned punter Cameron Dicker.
Crosby underwent knee surgery during the offseason, landing him on the physically unable to perform list. The Packers haven’t said if the veteran will be ready to go for the start of the season, but today’s workouts indicate that the Packers are planning to roll without him.
The Packers recently signed Ramiz Ahmed to fill in for Crosby, and the Packers are likely considering a competition for that potential early-season work. Ammendola and McLaughlin are the two kickers with NFL experience; Ammendola connected on 68.4 percent of his field goal tries last year while McLaughlin converted 71.4 percent of his own.
Crosby had a down year in 2021, converting only 73.5 percent of his field goal attempts (his worst percentage since 2017). Still, the Packers legend has connected on 81.1 percent of his field goal tries throughout his 15-year career. While Green Bay may temporarily roster a second kicker to open the season, there’s a good chance that fill-in will be demoted to the practice squad once Crosby is back to full health.
Dicker, an undrafted rookie out of Texas, spent the early part of the preseason with the Rams. Pat O’Donnell was brought in this offseason to replace Corey Bojorquez as the starting punter, and there’s a good chance that the team is just preparing their contact list in case of an injury.
The Cowboys moved on from two-year kicker Greg Zuerlein this offseason and introduced a competition between far less experienced specialists. Said competition appears to be generating some unease.
Struggles from both Lirim Hajrullahu and Jonathan Garibay will bring the Cowboys to work out some replacement options. Brett Maher, Matt Ammendola and Cole Murphy are coming in for a Tuesday workout, Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News notes. Maher, of course, has a Dallas history. He operated as the Cowboys’ kicker from 2018-19.
Garibay resided as the team’s lone kicker for much of the offseason; Hajrullahu arrived July 1. Garibay has struggled throughout camp, per Gehlken, who adds he missed seven of his 11 field goal tries during Saturday’s practice. Despite having just four games on his resume (all in 2021), Hajrullahu is going into his age-32 season. Garibay is a rookie UDFA out of Texas Tech.
The NFL’s lone kicker with three 60-plus-yard field goals — all coming during his time with the Cowboys — Maher resurfaced last season. He was part of the Saints’ Wil Lutz solution, one of four kickers to be classified as such last year. Maher, 32, made 88.9% of his field goal tries in eight games with the Saints. He was 10-for-12 on extra points. The Saints waived the ex-CFL leg in February.
Ammendola, 25, kicked in 11 Jets games last season — his first NFL action. The Oklahoma State alum made just 68.4% of his field goal attempts and was 14-for-15 on PATs. The Jets cut him in March. He also auditioned for the Jaguars last month. Murphy, who kicked at Syracuse from 2014-17, has not played in an NFL regular-season game.
After Maher’s late-season struggles in 2019, the Cowboys moved on. They gave Zuerlein a three-year, $7.5MM deal in 2020 but dropped him in March of this year. Zuerlein has since replaced Ammendola with the Jets. Considering the underwhelming Hajrullahu-Garibay competition, it would be a slight surprise if one of these available kickers was not added after Tuesday’s workout. With Hajrullahu going 8-for-8 against a live rush Monday, it might be Garibay whose job is at stake here.
Here’s a list of minor players who visited or worked out for an NFL team today:
Carolina Panthers
Green Bay Packers
Houston Texans
Jacksonville Jaguars
Las Vegas Raiders
New York Giants
Pittsburgh Steelers
Washington Commanders
Howard had recently also worked out for the Saints, along with Bo Scarbrough, according to Nick Underhill at New Orleans Football Network. Howard has bounced between Philadelphia and Miami with limited success since averaging 1,123 rushing yards per season and totaling 24 rushing touchdowns in his first three seasons with the Bears. Injuries and limited productivity have really hurt Howard’s success over the past three years.
The Jets finished last in the AFC East last season. While they did rank 28th in offensive yardage in the league and finished dead last in yards allowed, they got no help from their kicking game as the team converted only 77.78% of its field goal attempts and 85.19% of its extra points. According to Connor Hughes at The Athletic, things haven’t looked much better for Gang Green this offseason. 
Last season saw the NFL debut of Oklahoma State undrafted kicker Matt Ammendola as he began the year as New York’s primary kicker. While he didn’t get a chance to score in Week 1, since the Jets went for two-point conversions on each of their two touchdowns, he did contribute with six punts for 291 total yards after starting punter Braden Mann sprained his knee after his first punt of the season. Ammendola would go on to man the kicking position for the first 12 weeks of the season, missing 1 of 15 extra points and converting 13 of 19 field goals along the way. He was perfect from 39 yards and in, but only 2 for 5 in the 40-49 yard range and missed all three attempts over 50 yards. After a rough two-week stretch that saw him miss 3 of 6 field goals, Ammendola was waived and placed on the practice squad after going unclaimed.
The Jets then brought in former Gators kicker Eddy Pineiro, who was the primary kicker for the entire season for the Bears two years ago. Pineiro added some stability to the kicking game, converting all eight of his field goals attempts but did miss one extra point. He even converted the Jets first and only 50+ yard field goal of the season in order to give the Jets a three-point lead over the Buccaneers going into halftime.
New York entered the offseason with Ammendola and Pineiro, but decided late into March that they wanted to bring in a veteran presence in Greg Zuerlein. Greg the Leg spent the first eight seasons of his career with the Rams, joining the Cowboys two years ago as Dallas’s primary kicker. Mr. the Leg has seen varying success throughout his career spanning from a 2015 season in which he missed a third of his kicks to a 2017 All-Pro season that saw his miss only 2 of an attempted 40. He is known as a kicker of great distance. Despite only converting 55.07% of his field goal attempts over 50 yards, his longest converted field goal of the season has routinely been above 54 yards, with two seasons entering into the 60+ yard range.
Three days after bringing in Zuerlein, New York waived Ammendola, leaving the kicking competition to be settled by Zuerlein or Pineiro. The Jets special teams coordinator Brant Boyer has described the race between the two as “tight,” claiming Pineiro and Zuerlein are “neck and neck.” Unfortunately, the competition is so close because neither kicker has made a strong case to be awarded the position over the other.
Boyer will have to make a decision at some point, but he’s likely hoping Pineiro or Zuerlein will make the decision for him by stepping up to take the role. Hughes posits that, like many past seasons for Gang Green, New York’s Week 1 kicker might not even be on the roster yet.
The Jets kicking competition is down to two players. The Jets announced that they have released kicker Matt Ammendola.
[RELATED: Jets Sign K Greg Zuerlein]
Ammendola was already facing an uphill battle to make the roster. The Jets signed veteran kicker Greg Zuerlein this past weekend, and they later signed restricted free agent kicker Eddy Pineiro to a new one-year deal. The front office seems content to head into training camp with a competition at kicker, but three was apparently too many at the position.
Now, Ammendola will look to revive his career elsewhere. The 2020 undrafted free agent out of Oklahoma State made his NFL debut last season for the Jets, seeing time in 11 total games. The 25-year-old connected on 13 of his 19 field goal tries and 14 of his 15 extra point attempts. He even added in six punts, averaging 48.5 yards.
A bunch of teams had their seasons come to an end yesterday, and these front offices are now starting to prepare for the offseason. Today, a number of players were inked to reserve/futures contracts, which allows organizations to retain (mostly) young, practice squad players throughout the offseason. We’ve compiled today’s reserve/futures contracts below:
Baltimore Ravens
Carolina Panthers
Cleveland Browns
Denver Broncos
Detroit Lions
Houston Texans
Jacksonville Jaguars
Minnesota Vikings
New Orleans Saints
New York Giants
New York Jets
Seattle Seahawks
Washington Football Team
Today’s taxi squad moves:
Atlanta Falcons
Carolina Panthers
Chicago Bears
Cleveland Browns
Denver Broncos
Green Bay Packers
New York Giants
New York Jets
Seattle Seahawks
Tampa Bay Buccaneers