Washington is again looking for a new kicker.
The Commanders announced Monday they released Matt Gay, cutting ties with the veteran roughly 24 hours after he missed a pair of field goals — including what would have been the game-winner — in the team’s 16-13 overtime loss to the Miami Dolphins.
Coach Dan Quinn said he and General Manager Adam Peters made the move because of Gay’s issues overall, not the fact that he missed a 51-yarder and the go-ahead 56-yarder on Sunday in Madrid.
“Matt has been a fantastic teammate here, and an all-time good dude,” Quinn said. “So yeah, really bummed that it didn’t work out, but we just felt, hey, this was the change that we needed.”
Gay, 31, made just 13 of his 19 field goal attempts this season. He particularly struggled from beyond 50 yards, from which he had missed more attempts (five) than he had made (four) through 10 games. (He missed the Kansas City Chiefs game with a back injury.)
A seven-year veteran who won a Super Bowl title with the Los Angeles Rams, Gay appeared visibly distraught while speaking with reporters after Sunday’s game. He said the snap and hold on the potential game-winner were perfect, the attempt was in his range and the ball felt good leaving his foot. But “it only counts if it goes through,” he continued, and he instead was left to try to assume blame for the loss.
“I don’t know what lesson this is going to teach me. But it’s going to teach me something,” Gay said. “And I’m going to come out stronger from this. Hopefully I’ll have other opportunities to go out there and play.”
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As the Commanders enter the bye week at a lowly 3-8, they will be looking for yet another new kicker — continuing an absurdly high degree of turnover at one of the sports most pressure-packed positions. In roughly a season-and-a-half with Quinn and Peters at the helm, the team has cycled through nine kickers. Some never played in a game, others succumbed to injuries and some — such as Matthew Wright, who was signed briefly after Gay got hurt — were temporary fill-ins.
Gay was supposed to stop that kicker carousel from spinning. When the Commanders signed him in March, they gave him a fully guaranteed $4.25 million contract. It was the type of hefty deal that, despite being only one year in length, signaled a desire for Gay to be a more permanent solution.
“We wanted this to work out long-term with Matt,” Quinn said Monday. “But that was the decision that we felt was best.”
It is immediately unclear how quickly Quinn and Peters will move to fill Gay’s spot or whether they already have a specific replacement in mind.
Wright, the only other kicker who appeared in a game for Washington this season, has since signed with the Houston Texans. In a cruel twist, Wright also had a game-winning field goal attempt Sunday with the game tied at 13. He made his from 35 yards out.
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