The New York Jets have signed kicker Greg Zuerlein, the team announced Saturday.
Zuerlein will look to rebound in 2022 after missing six field goal attempts (going 29-of-35) and six PATs (42-of-48) in 2021 with the Dallas Cowboys, who released him this month. In 2020, Zuerlein set a Cowboys team record by making 34 field goals.
The Jets have been cycling through kickers ever since Jason Myers, an All-Pro in 2018, departed for the Seattle Seahawks in free agency. In 2019, they tried to replace him with Chandler Catanzaro, who retired unexpectedly in training camp.
Since then, the Jets have employed seven kickers: Kaare Vedvik, Sam Ficken, Sergio Castillo, Chase McLaughlin, Matt Ammendola, Alex Kessman and Eddy Pineiro. Vedvik, McLaughlin and Kessman lasted only one game before they got the boot.
The Jets have three kickers on the roster: Zuerlein, Pineiro and Ammendola, who remained on the practice squad last season after getting released. Pineiro was tendered a one-year, $2.43 million restricted free agent contract offer last week, giving the Jets the right of first refusal if another team tries to sign him.
Zuerlein, 34, is joining his third team after spending eight seasons with the Rams, who drafted him in the sixth round of the 2012 draft. He has one of the strongest kicking legs in the league and had a career-best 61-yard field goal in 2015. Zuerlein was a first-team All-Pro two years later, when he also made his only Pro Bowl team while making 38 of 40 field goal tries.
For his career, Zeurlein has made 82.2% of his field goal attempts.
Information from ESPN’s Rich Cimini and Todd Archer and The Associated Press was used in this report.