Carolina Panthers cut Matt Wright, but the kicker competition might not be over
The Carolina Panthers have made a key decision in their kicking competition.
But it may not be the final one.
The team announced Monday that it cut NFL journeyman Matthew Wright from its roster. This leaves Ryan Fitzgerald as the team’s only kicker at the moment.
This does not guarantee that Fitzgerald — the 5-foot-11, 193-pound undrafted rookie out of Florida State — will be the starting kicker Week 1, of course. Head coach Dave Canales told reporters on Friday that while he felt “very confident” in both Fitzgerald and Wright, he said “I also know there are good kickers out there” that could be acquired via the waiver wire or by other means.
“Like every other position, I think we start with the information we have, and then we gotta look at the whole thing,” Canales said. “We gotta look at who’s all out there and how do they stack up? In terms of accuracy in the kicking game — field goals and PATs — and also what guys can bring to us in the kickoff setting. And all that. So that’s going to be a part of these conversations coming up.”
Nevertheless, Wright’s release is a milestone in one of only a few major roster competitions that began in the spring and sustained through summertime’s training camp and preseason.
Fitzgerald made a really strong first impression with the Panthers thanks to his powerful leg. In the first public organized team activities session, Fitzgerald went 5-of-5 on the so-called “skinny posts” — the goalposts that are about half the width of regulation goalposts — the last of which was from 58 yards out.
He and Wright then had a pretty level battle thereafter through training camp, and they each had largely good preseason performances. Fitzgerald finished the preseason 3-of-3 on field goals — his longest from 43 yards out — and converted his only PAT attempt. Wright, meanwhile, was perfect from PATs but missed his only preseason attempt from 55 yards out against the Houston Texans.
Both performed adequately in the kickoff game, too, Canales said. The Panthers coaching staff asked the kickers to have the football land in the landing zone on kickoffs to test if such a strategy would be good in the league’s new kickoff format. The kicking coverage unit saw mixed results — but the kickers fared well.
Fitzgerald, 25, concluded his senior year at Florida State with first-team All-America honors, second-team All-ACC honors and as a Lou Groza Award finalist. He went 13-for-13 on the season — the most in the nation without a miss — and went 5-for-5 over 50 yards, the most 50-yard field goals in a season at FSU.
Still, Wright put up a fight. Wright has played for seven NFL franchises in five seasons. And while he set out to be the Panthers’ starter, this is likely not the last time NFL teams will hear from him; he’s regularly a front-office favorite first call when a team’s starting kicker sustains an injury.
In 2024 alone, he played for three franchises. One was with the San Francisco 49ers, where he went 3-for-3 on field goals and was perfect on three extra point attempts as well. Another was with the Tennessee Titans. And another was with the Kansas City Chiefs — a team he even nailed a game-winner for before Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker returned to the roster from injury.
Among the kickers still on the market include Michael Badgley, Zane Gonzalez, Austin Seibert, Matthew Prater and Eddy Piñeiro — the team’s starter last year — among others.
And that doesn’t include other rookies on the market. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported that the Pittsburgh Steelers plan to waive kicker Ben Sauls if the rookie can’t be traded. Sauls made all four of his field goal tries against the Panthers in their preseason finale last week.
This story was originally published August 25, 2025 at 4:43 PM.
