One of the most interesting, and important competitions for the New York Giants this spring and summer is the fight for the team’s placekicking job.
The Giants began spring practices with three kickers, veteran Jason Sanders, 24-year-old Ben Sauls, and Dominic Zvada, a 22-year-old undrafted free agent.
It always seemed to be a stretch that the Giants would carry three placekickers on their 90-man roster all the way into training camp. Teams have certain numbers of players they feel they need at each
position to practice properly, and carrying three placekickers messes up the math, leaving them short at another position.
The Giants did, indeed, remove a kicker from their roster recently. The surprise was that the organization let the 30-year-old Sanders, a seven-year veteran and one-time All-Pro, go.
Sanders was trying to come back after missing the 2025 season due to a hip injury.
Head coach John Harbaugh explained the surprising decision by saying that Sanders did not seem to be the right “fit” due to the always-difficult Meadowlands winds. In a practice days before being cut, Sanders missed two of five kicks during an OTA. Both were badly impacted by the swirling winds at Quest Diagnostics Training Center.
That leaves Sauls, with three games of NFL experience, and Zvada, a rookie, competing for the job.
Let’s look at both kickers.
Ben Sauls
Sauls settled the Giants’ shaky kicking situation last season by going 8 of 8 on field goal attempts and 7 of 7 on extra points over the final three games.
Granted, Sauls’ longest kick in those three games was a 47-yard extra point. Still, the young, left-footed kicker seemed automatic.
That end of season performance has made what we have seen from Sauls so far this spring shocking. Sauls has been erratic, at best. In Wednesday’s OTA, Sauls made just 6 of 12 field-goal attempts from 33 to 47 yards. One of those was a shank that barely got off the ground.
Sauls is dealing with a new holder in Jordan Stout and new snapper in undrafted rookie free agent Ben Mann. Could the problem be the operation? Sauls is the NFL’s only left-footed placekicker, so it is an adjustment for the holder and snapper. Casey Kreiter, the former snapper, spoke last season about the voluje of work he and holder Jamie Gillan had to put in to adjust. Or, is Sauls just kicking poorly?
Time will tell. Sauls, though, needs to quickly find the consistently he showed in his stint with the Giants last season. If he can’t, he won’t be keeping the placekicking job.
Dominic Zvada
Media never saw Zvada kick during OTAs. On the days there was access, it was never his day to kick. So, nothing to report about his progress. Except that the Giants are curious enough to have kept him and cut Sanders.
Zvada had an up-and-down college career at Arkansas State and Michigan, with tow exceptional seasons and two so-so ones.
For his career, he went 64 of 78 (82.4%) on field-goal attempts, 135 of 137 on extra points (98.5%) and 10 of 12 83.3%) on field-goal tries from beyond 50 yards.
The Giants, obviously, want to take a long look.
Final thoughts
There is, of course, the possibility that the Giants’ 2026 placekicker is not currently on the 90-man roster. They are investing a lot of time and effort into Sauls and Zvada, though. Coach John Harbaugh went with rookie placekicker Tyler Loop last season with the Baltimore Ravens, so there is precedent for that in his background.
The placekicker situation will be fascinating to watch all summer.
