The Los Angeles Rams cut kicker Harrison Mevis this week and immediately picked up Blake Grupe as a replacement, but that doesn’t mean that general manager Les Snead’s search is over. One — or even two — potential options could come on the trade market, specifically in the form of veterans on 0-5 teams who may be open to any type of deal that helps them in the future.
Those kickers are Joey Slye of the Tennessee Titans and Riley Patterson of the Miami Dolphins, as noted by OvertheCap’s Nick Korte,
they are cheap veterans on winless teams. Slye is due $1.16 million over the rest of the season, while Patterson is due $931,000. It’s cheap enough for L.A. to actually afford a trade.
Slye is 5-of-6 on field goals this season and 5-of-5 on extra points. Playing on the Titans, Slye doesn’t get many chances to score.
In his career, Slye has made 81.4% of his kicks, including 35-of-56 from 50+. Last season he went 28-of-35 with the Titans and 9-of-14 from 50+. It’s the type of leg that the Rams did not have with Mevis.
Tennessee is Slye’s seventh team, however, indicating that he always loses the job eventually.
Patterson is 7-of-9 with the Dolphins, and 5-of-6 on extra points. In six years, Patterson has struggled on long kicks, going just 7-of-14 from 50+. He’s been really accurate inside of 50, however.
Miami is Patterson’s eighth team.
The Rams are going with Grupe now. They might pivot to a kicker on a bad team in the future if Grupe doesn’t work out, which is totally within the real of possibilities.
