It’s been a revolving door at kicker for the Los Angeles Rams this year. They started with Tanner Brown in training camp, but he was cut before the regular season began and replaced by Brett Maher. Then, Maher was cut after seven games and Lucas Havrisik took his spot for the next nine games, only to be released before the season finale.
Maher is back as the Rams’ kicker with the playoffs approaching, getting a second shot in Los Angeles after missing six field goals and one extra point in his first stint. It’s only been a week, but Sean McVay has been encouraged by Maher’s performance in practice thus far.
“He’s been great. Shoot, it was really windy yesterday. Those are not ideal situations to be able to kick in and thought he was really smooth with the operation,” McVay said. “I thought he did a good job early on. When you go back and you look at it, I thought there were a lot of situations, if I’m being honest with myself, that you’re saying those are tough spots to put anybody in with the amount of attempts from 50-plus. And you look at just the landscape of the league, even from the guys that have been doing it as well as anybody all-time or over the course of their careers as of late, so I think you have to be mindful of that. He’s had some big-time game experience and so I was pleased with the way Brett came back in.”
McVay didn’t admit he cut Maher too quickly, but after seeing the drop-off to Havrisik, perhaps he realized the grass wasn’t greener. Maher did miss too many field goals, but four of his six misses were from beyond 50 yards. Havrisik, on the other hand, missed four of his six attempts from 40-49 yards.
The Rams need some consistency from the kicker position in the playoffs because what they got from Havrisik and even Maher was not good enough. No team since 2015 has missed more field goals than the Rams have this season, showing just how bad it’s been all year.