This time last year the Seahawks wanted to get younger and cheaper at kicker.
Now, burned by that decision in 2017, they apparently are considering going about as old as there is in the game.
After repeated misses by Blair Walsh last season, Seattle is set to host 40-year-old Sebastian Janikowski on a free-agent visit Tuesday. That is according to a report by ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Janikowski began last season, his 18th consecutive year with the Oakland Raiders, as the NFL’s sixth-oldest player. Indianapolis Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri is the league’s oldest at 45.
Janikowski is 11th in NFL history with 1,799 points. That is third among active players behind Vinatieri (2,487) and Arizona Cardinals kicker Phil Dawson (1,817). Janikowski has the league record for most field goals made from 50 yards or longer: 55.
The Seahawks signed Walsh last spring to a one-year contract worth $800,000. Walsh replaced Steven Hauschka. Walsh, a former All-Pro with the Minnesota, Vikings arrived at 27 years old, four years younger and $2.45 million cheaper than Hauschka, who signed with Buffalo.
Walsh made just 21 of 29 field goals in 2017. He started last season converting 12-of-13, then went 9-for-16 to finish the year. He missed three field goals in the three-point home loss to Washington in November, another one in the six-point loss at Jacksonville in December and his last try, in the final seconds of a 26-24 loss to Arizona in last weekend’s season finale.
Two more wins last season and the Seahawks (9-7) would have been in the playoffs.
To no one’s surprise the Seahawks let Walsh’s contract expire. Seattle signed Jason Myers in January, with the understanding Myers would eventually get competition for the kicking job in 2018. The 26-year-old Myers was the Jaguars’ kicker for all 16 games of the 2015 and 2016 seasons and the first six games of 2017. Jacksonville released him after he missed four of his first 15 field-goal tries last season.
Walsh was 33rd in field-goal accuracy (73 percent) last season in the 32-team NFL.
Who was 32nd? Myers.
That’s why Janikowski is apparently on his way to visit Seattle
He’s earned $51 million kicking for the Raiders since 2000. The only team Janikowski has known in the NFL told him in February it would not be re-signing him this year. His Oakland contract paid him $3 million guaranteed last year.
Why, you may ask, wouldn’t the Seahawks draft a kicker this month to complete for the job?
Coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider have not drafted a kicker in any of the eight drafts they’ve run leading the Seahawks. The last one Seattle drafted came in 2008: Brandon Coutu, in the seventh round. He never kicked in a regular-season game for the Seahawks, and the GM who picked him, Tim Ruskell, was fired the next year.
Plus, the Seahawks right now own just eight picks in the seven-round draft. Barring an expected draft trade or two in the next couple weeks, eight picks would tie 2015 for the fewest of the Carroll-Schneider regime.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
