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Should Los Angeles Rams Fans Be Thrilled About Their New Kicker? Analyst Says Yes! - LAFB Network
Pro Football Focus draft analyst, Max Chadwick joined the Rams Skinny podcast to talk all things Los Angeles Rams draft. When asked which pick he was most
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Should Los Angeles Rams Fans Be Thrilled About Their New Kicker? Analyst Says Yes!
Pro Football Focus draft analyst, Max Chadwick joined the Rams Skinny podcast to talk all things Los Angeles Rams draft. When asked which pick he was most excited about, it wasn’t Jared Verse or even Blake Corum. It was the kicker, Joshua Karty.Karty was picked with the 209th overall pick in the sixth round of this year’s draft. He was the second kicker drafted, the first being Will Reichard from Alabama who was selected six picks before Karty.
Los Angeles Rams Kicker is a “Generational Prospect”
And Chadwick isn’t excited for him as a kicker. He lumped him in with the top draft prospects in the entire draft regardless of position.
“Hey, listen, you wanna talk generational prospects? We can talk about Marvin Harrison Jr. We can talk about Brock Bowers, we’ve gotta talk about Joshua Karty as well. Joshua Cardi has a 97 career grade in our grading system that is the highest we’ve ever given to a kicker. And, and we’ve been doing this since 2014 for college football. So over the last decade he has the highest career grade of any kicker we’ve ever seen.
Chadwick broke it down even further;
“He had the highest grade this past season, the year before, he was the second highest grades kicker in the country. He’s 7 for 10 from 50 plus yards in each of the last two years. Second most 50 plus yard makes in that span. He’s only missed one kick from 49 yards and in since 2022 as he was 34 for 35. And he’s only missed one extra point in his career as well on 73 attempts.”
“So I think he’s the best kicker we’ve seen in the last decade. And I know it’s not as sexy of a position as anywhere in offensively or defensively, but I I think he is gonna be a long, long time starter for Los Angeles as their starting kicker. And I thought he was by far the best kicker in the draft. He wasn’t even the first one taken and I think he’s gonna be an excellent, excellent kicker in the NFL and might even be one of the best kickers in the league pretty quickly.”
The Rams have struggled over the last few seasons to find a reliable place kicker. Last season they bounced between Brett Maher and Lucas Havrisik, swapping out one for the other several times.
Karty is the third kicker drafted by Les Snead and the second in the McVay Era. Snead’s first was Greg Zuerlein in 2012, his first season as general manager. Zuerlein was the Rams kicker until 2019 and is still one of the franchise’s best legmen. The Rams drafted Sam Sloman in 2020. Sloman played a total of seven games for the Rams.