5 Options for the NY Giants to replace Aldrick Rosas with
4. Jonathan Brown
Andddd this is the point of this article where things start to go off the rails a little bit, as I delved deep into both former college kickers and punters to uncover what could be this diamond in the rough for the NY Giants.
In fact, Jonathan Brown has such little in-game field goal kicking experience I had to dig up a picture of him on the kickoff unit he served for when he played for Louisville way back in 2014.
A former Kentucky soccer, Brown transferred to Louisville to play more soccer ended up on the football team as the kickoff man due to concerns over the other guy’s power. By all accounts, he did a fantastic job showing off his power by averaging close to 70 air yards per kickoff in his lone two college seasons.
He didn’t play or record any more stats after that season, so you must be thinking, what are we talking about here?
Well, someone got a good tip somewhere along the line and gave Jonathan Brown a call to work out for them two weeks after the draft that he never would have imagined he would have been participating in.
That team was the Cincinnati Bengals, and they saw enough out of Brown to keep him around for two full years on the practice squad. When he finally got his shot to show out in preseason in 2018, that he did. He connected on 6-6 field goals with a booming long of 55 yards.
It still wasn’t enough to win the competition, but it put him on the NFL radar and he’s bounced around several more teams without yet making an official field goal attempt in the NFL yet – he spent some time with the 49ers last year.
Sometimes, when things get rough and options are low, you’ve gotta think outta the box. I can’t think more out of the box than a “kicker” that’s never attempted a field goal in an official regular-season college or pro game and only spent one year of his college career kicking and it was on the kickoff team.
But, what’s the risk? The NY Giants could land Brown for next to nothing.
Give it a shot, fortune favors the brave and there’s no risk involved.