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Rich Cimini, ESPN Staff Writer
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — The New York Jets are changing kickers — again.
They released Riley Patterson after one game and signed Anders Carlson to the practice squad on Friday, with the expectation that he will be their kicker in a virtual must-win game Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals. He will be their third kicker in the past three games.
Carlson, 26, became available this week, as he was released by the San Francisco 49ers after two games as an injury replacement for Jake Moody and Matthew Wright. He was 5-for-5 on field goals, including a 55-yarder, and 3-for-4 on extra points. Carlson was a 2023 sixth-round pick of the Green Bay Packers, who acquired that pick from the Jets in the Aaron Rodgers trade. He was cut by the Packers in the preseason after an up-and-down rookie season in which he went 27-for-33 on field goals and 34-for-39 on PATs.
The Jets’ kicking carousel started spinning Oct. 30, when the slumping Greg Zuerlein was placed on injured reserve with a previously undisclosed knee injury. That came only days after he missed a field goal and extra point in a three-point loss to the New England Patriots — the third loss in which Zuerlein’s misses loomed large.
Patterson won a six-man tryout to land the job as Zuerlein’s replacement, and he was perfect in last week’s 21-13 win over the Houston Texans — 3-for-3 on PATs, although one hit the upright. When Carlson became available, the Jets saw it as an opportunity to upgrade the position.
They still haven’t shut the door on a Zuerlein return.
“[He] was coming off of a career year last year and we all still believe in Z,” general manager Joe Douglas said Wednesday. “Obviously, he struggled with some of the mechanics and had a little tweak here, so I think this is a good opportunity for him to kind of hit the reset button. No one has given up on Zuerlein coming back here and helping us win games and, possibly, win a championship.”
The Jets (3-6), who snapped a five-game losing streak last week, still have an 18% chance to make the playoffs, according to ESPN Analytics.