With the 2022 NFL Draft wrapped up, all of the attention is now heading towards this year’s Training Camp. While most of the chatter will likely be around the franchise’s new WR Group and the pieces they added on both lines of the ball, the one position that intrigues me the most heading into camp is the Kicker Battle between SMU Kicker Chris Naggar and Texas Tech Kicker Jonathan Garibay.
After fielding out Kicker Greg “The Leg” Zuerlein for two seasons, Zuerlein was one of the four players the club parted ways with this offseason. With now a question mark on who was going to take over the kicking reins, some pointed towards them to either rolling with Naggar or drafting LSU K Cade York or Texas Kicker/Punter Cameron Dicker.
However, they surprisingly didn’t draft either and some believed they were heading towards rolling with Naggar.
But with one of their twenty undrafted free agent signings, the club signed Garibay and while it’s typical to not get too excited about UDFA signings (since the odds of them making an impact is rare), fans were elated about Garibay after they caught video of his 62-yard GW FG against Iowa State.
Some went as far as to claim that Garibay was going to start over Naggar no doubt, but is too early to say that?
The Cowboys are signing undrafted rookie free agent kicker Jonathan Garibay
(Video: @CamMellor) pic.twitter.com/8sNzqvGKJS
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) April 30, 2022
In his two seasons at Texas Tech, Garibay was 23-27 (85.2%) in FGM and 55-57 (96.7%) in XPM, and if you compare those numbers against York or Dicker (who were touted as the two top K’s in this year’s class), he was statistically better.
While Naggar does bring a little more NFL experience than Garibay, he is unproven. However, that doesn’t mean I’m designating him as the loser already for the starting kicker gig since he has a chance to showcase his talent still.
And just like Naggar, Garibay shouldn’t be overlooked and it wouldn’t surprise me if the franchise rolls out with a Rookie Kicker for the first time since Dan Bailey.
My only wish for whoever wins the kicker position for this season is to please be reliable. Because if you’re like me, I’m tired of seeing past kickers miss extra points or field goals that cost them the game later on, and well… I just miss Dan Bailey. (At least he made kicks.)
So what do you think Cowboy fans? Are you hype about Jonathan Garibay possibly being the franchise’s Kicker of the future?
