Lions cut veteran kicker Michael Badgley
When it comes to NFL careers, few things are guaranteed. If anything, at all. Especially for kickers. In this instance, it's Detroit Lions placekicker, Michael Badgley. Badgley joined the Lions in Week 5 after the Chicago Bears released him from their practice squad. He went on to make 20 of his 24 field goal attempts […]
When it comes to NFL careers, few things are guaranteed. If anything, at all.
Especially for kickers. In this instance, it's Detroit Lions placekicker, Michael Badgley.
Badgley joined the Lions in Week 5 after the Chicago Bears released him from their practice squad. He went on to make 20 of his 24 field goal attempts and 100% of his extra point attempts with the Lions. His 83.3% hit rate ranked 17th among all kickers with at least 20 field goal attempts from Weeks 7-18 and he made two of his three attempts from 50+ with Detroit.
The body of work was good enough to land Badgley a one-year, $1,232,500 contract back in March, but the sixth-year veteran was released on Thursday, per NFL Network's Tom Pelissero.
There are still two kickers on the roster in Riley Patterson and Parker Romo, but this isn't the end for Badgley and the Lions.
Badgley has five accrued NFL seasons under his belt, so, he's a veteran by league standards. Therefore, he doesn't have to go through the waiver process, which means the Lions have an avenue to reunite with him down the line, if they choose to so.
There is a chance that could happen, as well. The team released Badgley in order to get under the NFL's offseason roster limit of 90 players. They traded for Denzel Mims on Wednesday night and that put them over the limit.
Once the dust settles, don't be surprised if the two parties find a way to reunite. That's typically how this process shakes out. But, yes, it does mean another unfortunate name will hit either the waiver wire or the NFL streets.
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Featured image via Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
