Los Angeles Rams hope kicker woes won’t doom them

Sarah Barshop, ESPN Staff WriterJan 13, 2024, 06:00 AM ET
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THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — The Los Angeles Rams have made significant improvements on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball this season, but the one area that has been a struggle all season is their special teams unit.

The Rams rank last in the NFL in special teams DVOA and have missed 16 combined field goals and extra points, the most of any team this season.

Six of those field goal misses and two missed extra points were by kicker Brett Maher, who the Rams signed during the offseason, but cut after a 24-17 loss in Week 7 to the Pittsburgh Steelers. In that game, he missed two field goals and an extra point. The Rams replaced him with Lucas Havrisik, who has missed five field goals and three extra points in nine games for Los Angeles.

But after the Rams clinched a playoff spot before their Week 18 game, the Rams re-signed Maher. Head coach Sean McVay said the Rams wanted to bring in a kicker “that had some experience.” McVay also acknowledged that earlier in the season, “we asked [Maher] to attempt a lot of long field goals.”

“He was fairly consistent when you’re talking about some of those field goals from under 50 and in,” McVay said.

This season with Los Angeles, Maher is 7-of-7 on field goals under 40 yards, 7-of-9 on field goals from 40-49 yards and 3-of-7 on field goals 50 yards or longer.

Maher missed an extra point in Week 18 against the San Francisco 49ers. After the game, McVay said “it was a little bit windy down there, but those are things that we want to be more consistent with and as we know, that’s been a challenge for us.”

But it was Maher’s shorter kicks that were an issue for him last season with the Dallas Cowboys. Last year, Maher missed five extra points, including four straight in the NFC wild-card game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Maher went 1-of-6 in that postseason and is just one of two players in NFL history to miss five extra points in their playoff career, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

Those misses — and how to rebound from them — were a conversation Maher had with Rams special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn when he signed with the Rams, Blackburn said. The Rams signed Maher during the offseason to replace kicker Matt Gay, who signed a four-year, $22.5 million contract with the Indianapolis Colts during free agency.

One of the things that gives Blackburn the “confidence and belief” in Maher is the kicker’s “process, the way he handles it and goes about it each and every day.”

“Every day that you’re in this job, every year, every week, there’s opportunities to learn and grow from,” Maher said. “I think that’s kind of the approach I’ve taken through goods, bads, stuff like that, is figuring out what worked and why it worked and maybe what didn’t work and why it didn’t work. So just continuing to try to get better and take advantage of my opportunities.”