As Panthers’ Graham Gano returns from injury, kicking competition will be one to watch
Joey Slye wasn’t expected to kick in any games last year, let alone 16. Now he and Graham Gano are set up to have one of the more interesting Panthers training camp competitions this summer.
After Gano, 33, was placed on season-ending injured reserve with a left leg injury prior to the start of last season, Slye was given the opportunity to kick for the Panthers in his rookie year after going 7-for-8 on field goals in the preseason.
Making 78.1 percent of his kicks in 2019 (23rd) and missing 4 of 35 extra-point attempts (88.6 percent, 25th), Slye, 24, fought off competition that the team brought in after some tough outings during the year to retain his job. Now he and Gano will be fighting for the team’s starting role once training camp begins in Charlotte next month (if the NFL goes on as scheduled).
With a new coaching staff in place and the roster reshuffled, the kicking competition will be one of many for Carolina this summer as the team enters its first year under coach Matt Rhule.
One constant, however, is special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn. One of two returning coaches from last year’s staff (the other is now-quarterbacks coach Jake Peetz), Blackburn has familiarity with both players. Over the last couple of months, however, he has not been able to watch Gano’s rehab firsthand due to COVID-19 related-restrictions or see either player kick.
Blackburn did share that Gano’s rehab is going well and that he has been kicking and working out in the team facility.
“I get updates from from our trainer. He’s been able to go into the facility with the ruling of the injured players be(ing) able to go in, so he’s been back in there and he’s been kicking well,” Blackburn said. “I’ve been getting updates from Kevin (King, the team’s head athletic trainer), and everything’s been going well. Rehab’s been going really, really well and I guess he kicked today.”
There have been limitations with football work all taking place virtually over the past couple months, especially on special teams. That includes not being able to see someone like Gano’s progress in person. For Blackburn, the former Giants and Panthers linebacker, there have still been ways to engage with and test players.
“Obviously, you’re not getting the physical nature of it, right?” Blackburn said. “We’ve evaluated the players that were already on our roster or players that are coming from other teams. I’ve watched them all play, watched pretty much every rep that they’ve done.
“Now it becomes about the mind and about the attention to detail, and that comes in the answers to our quiz questions and the guys who have the willingness to pop in and lead and make communication calls ... take a lead in a meeting room, those things you can evaluate.”
When it comes time to evaluate Gano’s progress in person, his recovery will be key.
He missed the final four games of the 2018 season with a knee injury in his plant leg, later revealed to be a fractured femur, which occurred during a practice. Prior to that, Gano has been the Panthers kicker since he joined the team midway through the 2012 season after spending the first three years of his career with Washington. In his last full year, 2017, he made a career-high (for a 16-game season) 96.7 percent of his field goals, which led the league. He missed three extra-point attempts that year.
Gano had surgery in the fall on his knee. He has two years remaining on his contract and would cost around $3 million in total dead cap combined over the 2020 and 2021 seasons if released, per Spotrac
Now he’ll go up against Slye, who has just one year under his belt, to try and win his job back.
“The (kicking) battle as far as that’s concerned, I mean, in reality, we’re in a very, very blessed situation, because we got two very capable kickers with really talented legs,” Blackburn said. “There’s plenty of teams around the NFL right now that would be very excited to have the competition that we have going. But at the biggest part right now, I haven’t seen (Gano) kick or anything, we’re just working on this offseason program and we’re just trying to finish this strong.”
