Bills sign former Rams kicker to practice squad as Tyler Bass struggles continue
ORCHARD PARK - The Buffalo Bills have officially put kicker Tyler Bass on notice: Start performing, or you may not have a job.
Thursday morning, the team signed kicker Lucas Havrisik to its practice squad, and the message is clear: Bass remains the kicker, but if his struggles continue, they now have a contingency plan.
Havrisik kicked in college at Arizona where he made only 34 of 53 field goal attempts and he entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2022, spending time on the Colts practice squad before moving in 2023 to the Browns’ practice squad.
Eventually, he went to the Rams last season and appeared in nine games, connecting on 15 of 20 field goals. That 75% success rate is exactly what Bass is sitting on this season for the Bills (9 of 12).
Havrisik’s arrival doesn’t mean Bass would be cut, but there could be a game here or there where the Bills elevate Havrisik to see what he can do.
The problem with cutting Bass is the salary cap connotations. His $4.42 million cap hit this year is the sixth-highest on the roster and cutting him would trigger dead cap figures totaling around $7 million for the remainder of 2024 and then 2025.
On Wednesday, Brandon Beane admitted that he brought two kickers in for tryouts and they turned out to be Havrisik and Harrison Mevis.
“Yes, we do have some kickers,” Beane said. “We're gonna work them out after practice. T-Bass would be the first to tell you it hasn't gone the way he would like it. And, quite frankly, the way we like it. But the great thing about Tyler is we've had conversations with him. He's very aware, he knows we're working out people, and he understands it's a production business.
“And so, we have to make decisions, what's best for the team. And we want nothing more than Tyler to be our guy. We signed him, he felt he had really earned the deal that we paid him an offseason ago. But it is a production business, and he knows he's got to make those kicks. I think Sean said that no one's hiding from it. And so, at the same time, he hasn't done as well as he or we had hoped. So, we've got to continue to look and monitor. And if there's a better option that we have to turn to, then we'll do that.”
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, and he has written numerous books about the history of the team. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast
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This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Lucas Havrisik signed to Bills practice squad as Tyler Bass struggles
