The Los Angeles Rams are making a switch at the kicker position ahead of the playoffs. The Rams released Lucas Havrisik, who served as the team’s starting kicker for the past nine games, and brought back veteran Brett Maher.
Maher started the 2023 season with the Rams, but the franchise decided to move on from the 34-year-old after he missed two field goals and an extra point attempt in a Week 7 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Havrisik stepped in for Maher, but didn’t prove himself as a better solution. The second-year kicker missed five field goals and three extra points, including two PATs in Sunday’s 26-25 win over the New York Giants.
Rams’ head coach Sean McVay spoke about the change of kickers during Monday’s press conference, saying that the team wanted a more experienced player for the playoffs.
“Getting into the playoffs definitely changes a little bit of the dialogue in regards to knowing what we have coming down the pipe,” said McVay. “And so we wanted to get somebody in here that had some experience.”
Maher was good on 17 out of 23 field goal attempts in his first seven games with the Rams while converting 12 out of 13 PATs. Four of his FG misses came on 50+ yard attempts, something that McVay acknowledged in his chat with reporters.
“When you look at some of the earlier situations he was in, we asked him to attempt a lot of long field goals,” McVay added. “He was fairly consistent when you’re talking about some of those field goals from under 50 and in.”
