If he had it to do over again – and ideally, he’ll get that second chance somewhere – kicker Lucas Havrisik would have approached the job a little differently during his brief tenure with the Rams in 2023.
“I was so focused only on the NFL and performing … I didn’t have much balance in my life,” he said this week. “And that way didn’t really work, because obviously I gave everything I could, but it’s almost like I was too focused on it, you know?”
Those nine games in 2023 are, to date, Havrisik’s only opportunities as an NFL kicker. He has been on the practice squads of the Buffalo Bills, Indianapolis Colts and Cleveland Browns, and he spent this past spring kicking for the Arlington (Texas) Renegades of the United Football League, the two-year-old mashup of the second versions of the XFL and USFL.
Kicking in that league is a little different, since there are no extra-point attempts; all conversions are scrimmage plays. Havrisik, 25, who attended Norco High and the University of Arizona, made 22 of the 25 field goals he attempted for the Renegades (5-5) this season, including a 54-yard attempt, and had none blocked. His kickoffs were returned 19.5 yards on average.
“It’s one of the best seasons I ever had,” Havrisik said in a phone conversation this week. “I enjoyed playing in this league, with Antonio Ortiz and (punter) Marquette King as my snapper and holder. I think I did really well. The ones I missed were some dumb misses.”
The UFL is not the ultimate destination, obviously. The goal, for Havrisik and for anyone else in that league, is to get back to playing in the fall, on the big stage.
And his position, with all its importance, is also the most unstable as well as the easiest target for blame when things go awry. There are 32 NFL kickers at any given time and hordes of others waiting and hoping for an opportunity.
As Havrisik put it, “It’s not fun, especially in the NFL, if you miss a kick and you see four kickers the next day working out on your off day. You’re like, ‘Oh, man.’”
No wonder there’s undue stress that comes with this position. Where else is your job in jeopardy the moment you miss?
Havrisik took up football as a freshman at Norco High, a soccer player who thought he might have a future in that sport but was diverted because of his strong leg.
“I had a couple friends my freshman year of high school say we needed a kicker because they saw me kick a soccer ball really hard,” he recalled. “And I was like, ‘All right, I’ll go try it. I don’t care. I like sports. I’ll do whatever. … I had no idea what to compare myself to, (and) everyone was like, ‘Dude, you’ve got a great leg.’”
As a senior placekicker and punter at Norco, he was team MVP and the Big VIII League special teams player of the year. He set school records for longest field goal (51 yards), most field goals in a season and most touchbacks, and also played soccer and volleyball at Norco. He set Arizona’s record for longest field goal (57), as well, and was an All-Pac-12 honorable mention selection in 2020 and ’21.
And then he got on the NFL kickers’ hamster wheel.
He was signed to the Colts’ practice squad in September 2022 and released a week later. Cleveland signed him to the practice squad in September 2023, and the Rams plucked him for their actual roster that October when they released Brett Maher.
In those nine games – to date, the only NFL games in which he has kicked – Havrisik made 15 of 20 field-goal attempts, though he went just 4 for 9 from 40 yards or more. The highlight: a game-winning 22-yarder with 1:31 left in a 17-16 victory over Seattle at SoFi Stadium, in the immediate aftermath of which he said he was so focused on his task that when he was called, he thought the Rams had scored a touchdown and he was kicking a PAT rather than a field goal.
He also noted, when asked about kicking in SoFi Stadium, that kicking in high school before friends, family and neighbors was more nerve-racking. At SoFi, he said then, “it’s just a bunch of random people in the stands and, you know, it’s just an atmosphere. Like you can’t really let any outside conditions affect your game.”
Still, he hadn’t completely entered Rams coach Sean McVay’s circle of trust. And after he missed two extra-point attempts in a 26-25 victory over the New York Giants in the Meadowlands on the next-to-last weekend of the season, the Rams released him and brought back Maher.
After the Rams let him go, the Browns signed Havrisik in January 2024, released him in May, re-signed him a week later, waived him in June, re-signed him in August and waived him again three days later. Buffalo signed him to its practice squad on Oct. 17, largely as a warning to incumbent kicker Tyler Bass, and then released Havrisik on Oct. 31.
Through it all, Havrisik and his agent, Tom Mills, have remained undaunted. The UFL season ended last weekend, and now they’ll pursue another shot in someone’s training camp.
And if Havrisik gets another shot, he says he’ll continue the more balanced approach that he practiced in the UFL, focusing when necessary but letting other things into his life as well. It has helped his performance, and also his sanity.
“Kicking will drive you nuts if you only focus on kicking,” he said.
jalexander@scng.com