The Buffalo Bills have already made up their minds about who is going to be their kicker this year, and it’s not going to be veteran Stephen Hauschka.
The Bills have released the 35-year-old player which means that the job has been won by rookie kicker Tyler Bass, who the Bills picked in the sixth round of the 2020 draft.
Considering the fact that kickers are almost never picked in the draft and are usually signed as undrafted free agents, it’s easy to see that the Bills think a lot of Bass. It’s now up to the young kicker to prove the team right with how he performs on the field.
Hauschka has been with the Bills for three seasons, coming over from the Seattle Seahawks, where he won a Super Bowl in 2014. He has always been among the most accurate kickers in the NFL with a career field goal success rate of 85.7%, the 12th best rate in NFL history.
Over the last two seasons, however, Hauschka has started to show his age. His conversation rate on field goals has been 78.6% in both of his last two seasons. He was especially inaccurate on kicks of 50+ yards, going 5 for 12 over the last two seasons. The young Bass obviously has a stronger leg right now, which is probably one of the main reasons why the Bills decided to go with him.
