Pro Football Rumors
The Giants have undergone a major transformation over the last several months with a good amount of turnover on the roster and coaching staff. For the players, this set up a number of position battles as new competitors arrived in New York to win the favor of a fresh group of coaches. One of those battles appears to be headed for a surprising turnout as ESPN’s Jordan Raanan asserts that undrafted rookie Dominic Zvada has become the front-runner in the kicking competition.
The team worked through four different placekickers in 2025 as regular kicker Graham Gano struggled to say on the field for the third year in a row. Big Blue had enjoyed three good years from the Pro Bowl leg following his seven-year tenure in Carolina, but after appearing in only 23 of a possible 54 games since 2023, Gano was dropped by New York after the season ended. With Gano out most of last year, the team relied on Jude McAtamney and Younghoe Koo for over half the season before finally turning to Ben Sauls.
Sauls didn’t join the G-Men until halfway through his rookie season as an undrafted free agent, and he didn’t even get an opportunity to kick until making his NFL debut down the stretch in the final three games of the regular season. The Giants signed him to the active roster on a deal that would keep him under contract through the 2026 season after his first game with the team, and in his three-game opportunity, he went 8-for-8 on field goal attempts and converted all seven extra point attempts.
Early into the offsesoon, New York added veteran kicker Jason Sanders and released Gano. Then, after the draft, the team added Zvada. New head coach, and a former special teams coach, John Harbaugh announced that it was “going to be a competition…right out the gates,” and a few weeks later, the competition found its first casualty as Sanders was released, leaving Sauls and Zvada to duke it out.
Zvada came in as the de facto third option after four years as a primary kicker at the collegiate level. He started school at Arkansas State, missing only one field goal attempt and extra point attempt as a true freshman. Following his second year with the Red Wolves, Zvada transferred to Michigan and put on another one-miss performance in each kicking category for the Wolverines. After each of those two seasons, in which he went 38 of 40 on field goal attempts, he had some relative letdown years, combining to go 34 of 47 in 2023 and 2025. He showed off his strong leg in college, as well, with double-digit makes over 50 yards in his collegiate career.
Per Raanan, Zvada’s performance in the spring has moved him ahead of the incumbent Sauls. Raanan reports that in the practice sessions open to media, Zvada didn’t miss, going 13-for-13 on field goals at minicamp. The team still has a long way to go before they have to...
