It’s time to look past Joshua Karty when it comes to Rams field goal struggles

Rookie kicker Joshua Karty has faced ups and downs this season, but are the Rams’ kicking woes solely his fault?

Over the last two seasons, talking about the kicker has almost become a norm for the Los Angeles Rams. For the fourth time in six games, rookie kicker Joshua Karty missed on Sunday Night against the Philadelphia Eagles from 47-yards out. The miss brought his season total under 80 percent down to 76.2 percent through 11 games.

There are a few things true when it comes to Karty this season. Yes, he needs to be better and more consistent. At the same time, he is a rookie kicker and with that, there were always going to be ups and downs in the kicking game. If the Rams wanted consistency, signing a veteran kicker in free agency was an option. Even then, it would have been far from a guarantee.

The Rams drafted Joshua Karty back in April, making him the second kicker taken off of the board behind Alabama’s Will Reichard. At 12 weeks into the season, unless Karty completely falls off a cliff, it’s unlikely that the Rams cut him and rather bring in competition in the form of an undrafted free agent next summer.

It’s fair to expect more from Karty, but at the same time, a rookie kicker was always going to require patience. Greg Zuerlein made just 74.2 percent of his field goals as a rookie and had misses from 37 and 35 yards. Zuerlein had a game in which he went 2-for-5. That started a string of games in which he had a miss in five out of the last six games in which he attempted a field goal.

That’s not to say that Karty is the next Zuerlein. Many of Zuerlein’s misses came from beyond 50 yards. With that said, the point here is that it’s important for the Rams to remain patient. Blaming the kicker after a miss is easy. After all, they only have one job. With that said, it’s worth noting that the Rams signed Cameron Dicker as an undrafted free agent in 2022. Dicker was cut before the season and is now one of the better kickers in the NFL.

The recent struggles have some wanting to cut Karty and move on to yet another kicker. It’s the kicking carousel that never stops in Los Angeles right now. However, the field goal unit is an entire operation. The snap needs to be accurate, the hold needs to be on time and with the laces out, and only then is it up to the kicker to put the ball through the uprights.

In at least two misses this season, the laces on the hold were not facing the goal posts.

That’s not to say that the hold has been the only issue to Karty’s missed kicks. He certainly holds some responsibility. As Alex Kozora from Steelers Depot noted before the draft,

“Karty’s leg is loud and proud, and he routinely connected from distance…while Karty was productive, he struggled more from the left hash. Kicks had a tendency to sail right or be mishit and he didn’t look as comfortable as he did on the right hash.”

It’s worth noting that Karty is 4-for-7 from the left hash this season compared to 12-for-14 from the right hash. His misses against the Eagles and the Patriots both came from the left hash.

At the same time, the bad holds also adds some context to a few of those misses in which other aspects of the operation didn’t do their job. The other factor in this goes beyond the kicker and the operation as a whole.

Heading into the NFL Draft, Joshua Karty was one of the best kickers in the class. NFL Media’s Lance Zierlein wrote about Karty,

“He hits the ball with repeatable process and repeatable ball flight from 40-plus yards out, and he never seemed to get into a mental funk…Karty has a strong enough leg to make field goals from 54 to 56 yards without having to drive them low…He has middle-round draft value and could become a longtime NFL kicker.”

The Rams could have drafted Cam Little or signed Jake Bates from the UFL. However, is there any guarantee that the result wouldn’t be the exact same? The Rams special teams were historically bad last year under special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn. They had a field goal DVOA of -17.7 percent. In other words, their field goal unit was almost 18 percent worse than the league-average on field goals from a comparable distance.

They started the year with Tanner Brown who was cut right before the season. The team then signed Brett Maher who was then cut in October. Lucas Havrisik was signed as a replacement and cut right before the playoffs. The Rams then brought back Maher for the playoff game. That’s three kickers in four separate stints.

Karty is the fourth different kicker under this special teams coach. He made 91 percent of his kicks over his last two years at Stanford. The Rams can certainly keep doing the kicking carousel, but at what point is it not the kicker?

The Rams once again have a bottom-5 special teams unit as they rank 28th in DVOA. The field goal unit ranks 30th with a DVOA of -8.2 percent. There is one constant over the last two years and it’s not the kicker. At some point, you have to look at coaching and talent identification. Either the front office can’t identify a kicker or it’s a coaching issue. Karty was clearly talented coming out of Stanford, leaving one other option. That option is the one that has coached back-to-back bottom-tier special teams units. The Rams have had four kickers come through the building over the last two years and the chances of all four of them not being good seems slim. Are we sure that the kicker is the problem?

Maybe there was an argument to be made if retaining Blackburn despite a historically poor season on special teams after the team didn’t invest in special teams players. However, there was also a lot of reason to move on from him. Based on current results, it’s going to be something that has to be considered again this offseason.

It’s easy to look around the NFL, see other rookie kickers succeeding, and wonder what would have happened had the Rams drafted one of those players instead. The Minnesota Vikings drafted Will Reichard who has been the best rookie kicker this year. However, Reichard has been hurt recently and replacement John Romo is 5-for-5. Cam Little has also had success with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Again, this isn’t to say that Karty has been perfect and doesn’t deserve any criticism. There is clearly an issue on kicks from the left hash. However, the bigger conversation here is how McVay has overall handled special teams since arriving in Los Angeles and how the Rams have handled the kicker situation since Matt Gay. The Rams could cut Karty and do the same dance they did at kicker last year. However, at this point that accomplishes nothing. The issues at the kicker position for the Rams go way past the player kicking the ball.