‘How about Ryan Fitzgerald?’ Carolina Panthers unearth a kicking gem in big win
It was 20-something minutes after the Carolina Panthers stomped off the Bank of America Stadium turf victorious, and perhaps the only player who played a perfect game was at his locker, answering a text message from his mother.
He was happy to be doing so.
Sandy Fitzgerald had texted a video to her eldest son, Ryan. Several, actually. This one was of his 57-yard field goal. Her younger son, Brett, technically took that one, she told The Charlotte Observer postgame. Between the two of them, every Ryan Fitzgerald boot was captured on an iPhone camera.
Sandy sent it because, well, she’s a mom, and such a thing is just a thing loving and proud mothers do, no questions asked — never mind the dozens of high-definition cameras covering every inch and angle of Bank of America Stadium.
So, Ryan ... how’d it look?
“Good,” Fitzgerald said in the locker room postgame, shrugging and smiling after the Panthers’ 30-0 win over the Atlanta Falcons. “Seeing it reminded me to just be smooth, don’t have to overkick or do anything special.”
Fair enough.
What’s also fair: Being special seems to come pretty naturally to Fitzgerald.
On Sunday, the Panthers officially unearthed a kicking gem in Fitzgerald. The undrafted rookie kicker extended his perfect-to-date NFL career with a perfect day, drilling each of his three extra points and going 3-for-3 on field goals. His three field goals were from 57, 35 and 41 — and one of his extra points was from 48 thanks to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after a Panthers score.
It was the game of the rookie’s career, and after the text he stood in front of his locker and said Carolina was the “perfect place” for him.
“It’s so nice,” Fitzgerald said. “First off, thank God for the ability he’s given me. I’m so grateful for my teammates and coaches. I’m in the perfect place, and it’s just so gratifiying.”
Such a start to Fitzgerald’s career — 5-for-5 on field goals with a long of 57 and 5-of-5 on PATs through three weeks — isn’t necessarily surprising. His senior season at Florida State last season, the right-footed kicker went 13-of-13 that included a 59-yarder in the process.
But it wasn’t a given that he’d be the Panthers’ starting kicker. Far from it. Carolina had a kicking competition for the first time in a long while this offseason after the team let Eddy Piñeiro test free agency, and the competition with NFL journeyman Matthew Wright was tight.
On top of that, after Wright was cut the day before NFL roster deadline day, head coach Dave Canales didn’t immediately hand over the starting mantle to Fitzgerald. He was the kicker “for now,” the coach told reporters before the season, leaving open the possibility of the team picking another kicker before Week 1. Such is life in the NFL.
But on Sunday, after Fitzgerald’s fantastic feat, Canales brought his name up unprompted: “How about Ryan Fitzgerald?”
“Not just the field goals and PATs, but I really thought he impacted the game with how he kicked the ball on kickoffs,” Canales continued. “He gave us some amazing field position, some different kicks that gave him some issues, getting the ball on the ground in the landing zone.”
Fitzgerald was impossible to not notice Sunday. And the coahces did. Every time. The Panthers have been in the position several times to try a deep field goal. In each of the first two contests, they had key fourth downs on the 39, on the deep end of Fitzgerald’s range, but opted to punt the ball both times. Both, coincidentally, eventually yielded touchdown drives.
Fitzgerald knows that each call is situational, depending on game circumstance. But he also, without fail, does everything he can to catch special teams coordinator Tracy Smith’s eye on the sideline before such a moment to give him a subtle thumbs up and let him know: Just say the word; I’m ready.
JJ Jansen, the team’s longsnapper who’s seen so many kickers rip through Charlotte since arriving in 2009, noticed that about his rookie kicker early this spring.
“I’ve kind of told him, ‘OK, here’s the deal. Coach is going to make that decision. But if you feel really, really good about a kick that maybe that’s a little too much, just confidently go out on the field,’” Jansen said. “And if they call you back, they call you back. But you’re demonstrating confidence not only to your coaching staff, but to yourself, your teammates.
“And he did that. He was right behind me. ‘I want this. Let’s go.’”
Any and all of the uncertainty of training camp has been put away.
“Of course he’s our kicker,” Jansen said. “I’ll go back to a John Fox quote. ‘We’re all day to day.’ So we’ve all gotta perform week after week. But he’s done everything that’s been required.”
The whole view of Fitzgerald’s career — the training camps and practices and meetings — is something only players and coaches can see. But on game day, everyone has seen what he’s doing. Video proves it. From the multitude of media on the sideline and in the air, to his mother’s cellphone. The only reason why it’s on her phone, too, is because she can’t bring in her Nikon camera into NFL stadiums, the same device she has used to shoot her sons’ football teams since they were in high school.
When asked which side of the field they sat on during the home opener, Ryan laughed. “Neither. They sit behind the uprights.”
Behind which end zone?
Fitzgerald paused and smiled.
“I’m not sure,” he said.
No sweat. All he’d have to do to figure it out is check his texts, wherein lies the perfect angle of a perfect kick, on yet another perfect day.
