BEREA, Ohio — Kicker: It's one of the most important positions in the NFL, just ask a player.
"There are really three positions on the field that can win you and lose you a game. That's cornerback, quarterback and kicker," said Browns cornerback Greg Newsome II.
While the position can make or break a team on any given Sunday, it remains perhaps one of the most under-appreciated across sports.
"The similar position would be a closing pitcher in baseball, a hockey goalie—but the closing pitcher usually gets more than one pitch, and the hockey goalie usually gets more opportunities to make saves. For the kicker, it may just be one shot," said former NFL kicker and current mentor and personal coach John Carney.
Already this season, there's been plenty of turnover at the position. From the San Francisco 49ers waiving their former third-round pick Jake Moody to the Atlanta Falcons releasing longtime kicker Younghoe Koo, kickers have not been safe this year. In fact, that's been the case in recent seasons across the league.
"When I was playing, I thought the leash was a little longer for kickers and punters, and teams allowed you a little bit of time to pull yourself up and make the corrections and get back on track, and within the last six or seven years, I think teams have been very impatient," Carney said.
Whether it be impatience, uncertainty, or just plain bad luck, here in Cleveland, the Browns have been searching for a kicker for a long time. Spoiled by the success of the legendary Phil Dawson, it has at times felt like an uphill battle looking for someone of that caliber, or at least a player to provide some consistency at the position.
Since 2013, the first season after Dawson left the Browns, Cleveland has seen 14 different kickers start for the team. The list is long. It starts with Billy Cundiff and goes on to include Garrett Hartley, Travis Coons, Patrick Murray, Zane Gonzalez, Cody Parkey, Austin Seibert, Chris Naggar, Chase McLaughlin, Cade York, Riley Patterson, Dustin Hopkins and ends with Andre Szmyt, the current kicker.
In the more recent seasons, the kicker position has come with whirlwind production. From York hitting a 58-yard game-winning field goal in 2022 to give the Browns their first season-opener win in 18 years, to Hopkins setting a number of franchise and NFL records in 2023 (including records set by Dawson himself), both only to struggle later and be replaced.
The whirlwind felt not unlike what the players themselves feel.
"It's hard, especially at a place like [Cleveland]. The wind must have gone in eight different directions today. In the first and second quarter, we had the wind to our back both ways, which is a weird thing even for here. It's just being mentally tough and being able to handle it and that's kind of what it takes to be a kicker in the league is being able to do your job regardless of what the weather may be or situation," said Browns punter Corey Bojorquez.
Plain and simple, it's not easy being a kicker in the NFL. And that's no matter how good you are. Just ask Hall of Fame kicker Morten Andersen.
Andersen played in the league for 25 seasons, spending most of his time with the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons, but also had stints with the New York Giants, Kansas City Chiefs, and Minnesota Vikings. From 1982 to 2007, Andersen set the NFL record for regular-season games played at 382 and is ranked second in field goals (565) and points scored (2,544). He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton in 2017 and is just one of four kickers (and one of just two exclusive kickers) in the Hall of Fame.
Even he faced the hardships the position presents.
"It was mostly survival, to be honest with you. Just trying to survive the first year, the first couple of kicks, the enormity of the league and the overwhelming feeling in the beginning of fear and the fear of failure," Andersen said. "I didn't have a very good start at all, missed a lot of kicks, and I thought, 'Man, I'm going to be gone before I even have a chance to show people what I can do.'"
Andersen credits his former head coach, Bum Phillips, for giving him a longer leash to grow and bounce back, a leash that Carney previously noted he believes has gotten shorter over the years.
It's a leash some Browns fans didn't want offered to Szmyt after his NFL debut.
After the Browns selected him as the starter over Hopkins this summer following high production, including a game-winner in the final preseason game against the Los Angeles Rams, Szmyt took the field for his first-ever NFL regular-season game. He was a standout in college, winning the Lou Groza award at Syracuse before becoming a UFL standout and then earning his spot on the Browns.
But in his first game, things did not go as he had hoped. Szmyt missed two kicks against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 1—an extra point and a field goal. It was a game the Browns lost by just one point.
"You think you're in a groove and everything's good, and it's like, 'Oh,'" Szmyt said.
After the game, social media feeds were filled with fans calling for his job:
"Someone must be held accountable for trusting Andre Szmyt. Someone. He needs cut and a member of the coaching staff needs fired. 100%"
"Next post better be 'Browns release kicker Andre Szmyt.'"
"This kicker doesn't deserve a second chance."
Those were just some of the posts online about Szmyt.
Carney, who runs Carney Coaching and now mentors and coaches players in the NFL, including Szmyt, said that is not uncommon.
"You go out, you hit three field goals, you're the greatest thing since sliced bread. They love you. Give them a new contract. This guy's great," Carney said. "You go out the next week, you miss a kick: 'Get rid of him,' 'Cut him,' 'He's terrible.'"
While the NFL is trending in the direction where some teams may have cut Szmyt, the Browns stuck with the first-year kicker. Head coach Kevin Stefanski remained confident that he would bounce back and that the misses were just a part of what many young kickers, even Andersen back in 1982, go through in their first season in the league.
“I think the big thing there is rookie kickers, sometimes you’ll miss a kick, you’ll miss an extra point. I think the numbers will probably bear that out. You want everybody to be perfect right away, but it’s just how the position works. So, we have confidence in this young kid. I get to see him every day, like I’ve told you guys. I watch him kick in practice. I watch how he hits the ball in the games, and, you know, we’re confident in his ability," Stefanski said.
The patience the Browns showed in Week 1 paid off for them two weeks later. After a quietly successful outing for Szmyt in Week 2 against the Baltimore Ravens, he was called upon in a big moment last week against the Green Bay Packers. With less than four minutes left in the game, with the Browns trailing 10-0, Szmyt hit three kicks.
His first was a 35-yard field goal. Simple enough. His second was an extra point to tie it up at 10. Then, his redemption moment. With the clock expiring, Szmyt was called to attempt a 55-yard field goal. With Week 1 in the rearview mirror, Szmyt knocked down his kick, giving the Browns their first win of the season, snapping an eight-game losing streak stemming back to last year, and setting the record for the longest walk-off field goal in franchise history.
It also earned him AFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors after the game.
Patrience went a long way in a short time for Cleveland regarding Szmyt. Andersen believes teams should be more willing to take the approach Stefanski and the Browns did to start this season.
"I do think that if you have a young player with potential and they have a hiccup, they have a little bump in the road, that you have to have the maturity as a coach, you have to have the levity, and you have to have the understanding of looking at the big picture to say 'This guy has so much talent,'" Andersen said. "There are a lot of guys, young guys, who struggle out of the gate, but then you see them get cut and they go to another team and they absolutely just go on a run where they're hitting 20-25 in a row. So a little patience with that position would go a long way, I think- I think teams are very quick to pull the trigger if a guy misses one or two kicks, and I think it's a little bit unfair."
It's not to say Szmyt is the next Andersen or Dawson, even though the Browns and certainly fans hope that could be the case, but perhaps the key to finding success at kicker—especially here in Cleveland where turnover has become the norm—is giving one the chance to grow.
When it comes to separating the bad from the good, the good from the great, Andersen has a guideline.
"I think mentally the willingness to go to this distasteful place that is the 1.2,1.3 seconds from snap to kick and understand that that's truly the world of suck right there, and embracing the world of suck," Anderson said. The willingness and the courage, I would say, to put yourself out there knowing that you could fail, but also knowing that the rewards are great when you succeed. But to me, that's great versus good....You have to fail a few times to feel how ****** that feels and to not want to do that, certainly not more than two out of 10 times or one out of 10 times. And if you can do that, you're going to wear a Gold Jacket one day."
While Szmyt's not thinking of ways to become a Hall of Famer right now, he's keeping a mindset that allows him to "embrace the suck," as Andersen puts it.
"I've talked to a lot of kickers, just training with them and before like training camps and before seasons at these get-togethers and stuff. And a lot of them say, 'Hey, look, like I was stressed at the beginning of the career,' but like, what's the key to success? Just kind of having a chill, go-with-the-flow attitude. Trying to adopt that as best I can—it's Game 3. But just settling into it as best I can and just like I said, just like trusting my process, trust what I do, what got me here and not make the moment too big or bigger than what it is."
And Carney, who knows the game and Szmyt well, thinks the patience shown by Cleveland will pay dividends for years to come.
"He's extremely talented and he does have a pretty chill personality, which I like. He doesn't ride the roller coaster of emotions. When he comes out here and trains with us, he's the same guy that walks in our gym every day, that walks out on our field every day. His bad days on the field are good days for everybody else. He's really talented. He has a really educated foot, which means he makes very good contact the majority of the time," Carney said. "I think the Cleveland Browns have the right stuff in Andre Szmyt, and I think he'll be the kicker for decades."
