Who Should I Start? Graham Gano or Joey Slye

Saturday, February 22, 12:20 PM

The New York Giants don't have any big contracts that they need to shed this offseason and are in a pretty healthy salary cap situation in 2025, but The Athletic's Dan Duggan suggests that kicker Graham Gano could still be a cap casualty as the Giants look to save a little extra money. The 37-year-old veteran is set to count $5.7 million against this year's cap and has missed 16 games because of injury the last two years. If the G-Men decide to cut the kicker, they'd save $3.2 million on the cap while creating $2.5 million in dead money. Gano injured his hamstring in Week 9 in 2024 and ended up playing in only 10 games, going 9-for-11 on his field-goal tries and 15-for-15 on extra points. He's been pretty reliable in his five seasons with New York, making 87.2% of his field goals, but the Giants wouldn't be blamed for looking to go younger at the position.

Sunday, January 5, 10:28 PM

New England Patriots kicker Joey Slye went 2-for-2 on extra points and 3-for-3 on field goals during Sunday's Week 18 win over the Buffalo Bills. He converted field goals from 41, 42, and 50 yards out. The 28-year-old finished as a top-24 fantasy kicker this season, demonstrating impressive power but dealing with accuracy issues and handling reduced opportunities on a Patriots team that struggled to score points. All in all, he finished the 2024 campaign with 95.8 percent accuracy on extra points and 78.8 percent accuracy on field goals. This season was far from a disaster, and Slye did provide more stability in 2024 than Chad Ryland did as a rookie with the Patriots in 2023. Still, the Patriots may look to bring in a different kicker as they head into the 2025 campaign. Slye is slated to hit free agency in March.