An Autopsy of Failed Titans Kickers
Yesterday, the Titans made their first wave of cuts. Included in those cuts was recently signed Kicker Michael Badgley, who was signed after the Titans waived Caleb Shudak and Rookie Trey Wolff. Badgley struggled in his preseason debut, missing easy kicks and barely making even easier kicks. Tennessee cutting Badgley got me thinking, how bad have Titans’ kickers been since the departure of Ryan Succop?
Long story short, the Titans have struggled mightily to replace Succop after he left the team in 2019. Succop was the Titans’ starting kicker for six seasons and established himself as one of the better kickers in the league. Tennessee released Succop before the start of 2020 Free Agency, and the decision to release him was a mistake. Ryan went on to sign with the Tampa Bay Bucs and won a Super Bowl with the team in his first season. Succop has been great since leaving Tennessee, but the Titans have struggled to replace the 36-year-old…
Succop dealt with a ton of injuries during his last season in Tennessee, so the Titans rotated through a bunch of mediocre kickers to replace him. Cairo Santos, Cody Parkey, and Greg Joseph all kicked for Ten in 2019 but didn’t move the needle enough to stay with the team. Heading into the 2020 season, Mike Vrabel decided to bring in his old friend, Stephen Gostkowski. The Gostkowski experiment was a complete disaster as he was awful for most of the year, and wasn’t brought back for the 2021 season. Sam Sloman replaced the ill Gostkowski in Week 17 of the 2020 season vs. the Texans and kicked the game-winning FG to win the AFC South for Tennessee. The moment was great for about a week, and you never heard from Sloman again. After the failed Gostkowski and Sloman experiment, the Titans brought in Randy Bullock, who was pretty good for a few years. Bullock spent two seasons in Tennessee and was decent for the two-tone blue before being cut in the 2023 offseason. After cutting Bullock, the Titans signed Caleb Shudak, who kicked for the team a little bit that same year, and also Rookie Trey Wolff. Both had opportunities to seize the position in training camp but failed to do so. As a result, they were both waived and the Titans brought in Michael Badgley. Yeah, that didn’t last too long either…
There is currently no kicker on the Titans’ roster as we speak and that could be for the better! Ever since Ryan Succop left the team, the position has been a nightmare, and the Titans haven’t taken it seriously. It’s time for Mike Vrabel and Ran Carthon to sit down and figure this out. It can’t be that hard, right??
