By Jordan Long
The Seattle Seahawks season ended in the Super Wild Card Round. They were defeated by their NFC West rivals the San Francisco 49ers by the score of 41-23. The Seahawks, though, were quick to extend their kicker Jason Myers.
Myers has been the Seattle kicker for the past 4 years. This season was one of his best in Seattle. In the regular season, when Seattle’s offensive drives stalled on the opponent’s end, they could rely on him to nail field goals. He was an impressive 34 of 37, or making 91.9% of his kicks. Astoundingly, he was 6 of 6 when he needed to kick a 50+ yard field goal. His longest kick was 56 yards. Adding up all of his kicks, Myers had 143 total points, leading all kickers.
When it came to PATS (points after touchdowns), Myers did well. Seattle knew they would most likely add the extra point. Myers was 41 of 42.
Once the clock reached zero after the disappointing Wild Card game against the 49ers, the Seahawks knew they wanted to keep Myers for years to come. They agreed to a four-year, $21.1 million extension with him that could be worth up to $22.6 million with incentives. It also pays Myers $5.2 million a year, second among kickers to Baltimore Ravens’ kicker Justin Tucker who makes $6 million a year.
This was a very smart move by the Seahawks. There aren’t many teams who can trust their field goal kickers with long field goals. Myers has earned that. In a Seahawks’ uniform, Myers is 13 of 17 from 50+ yards. Most of the time he will not miss giving the opponent’s offense great field position. The Seahawks feel he is the future at the kicker position for the next 4 years.
The only downside to this is if Myers ends up missing kicks. Struggling to nail the longer field goals could give the rival teams a chance to score on a short field. For now, they have a weapon on special teams for the next 4 years.
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