Who Should I Start? Matt Prater or Tyler Bass

Friday, January 3, 12:10 PM

Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon said that veteran kicker Matt Prater (knee) "will not go" in the Week 18 regular-season finale on Sunday against the division-rival San Francisco 49ers. Prater suffered a meniscus injury in his knee earlier this year and missed the last three months as a result. The 40-year-old kicker only ended up playing in four games in 2024 before injuring his knee in his fourth year with Arizona and 18th year in the NFL. In the four games he was active, Prater made all six of his field-goal attempts (one from 50-plus yards) and was successful on all 10 of his extra-point tries as well. Prater will be a free agent heading into his age-41 season in 2025. Chad Ryland will close out the year this weekend as Arizona's kicker. He's bounced back from a tough rookie season with the Pats to go 26-for-30 on field goals and 21-for-22 on extra points in his 12 games with the Cardinals.

Wednesday, July 30, 8:52 PM

Buffalo Bills' Kicker Tyler Bass (pelvis) is still dealing with a pelvic issue that is holding him out of practice. After missing his second practice this week, Bills head coach Sean McDermott had mentioned that the pelvic injury shouldn't be a huge concern. However, if this issue were to keep Bass out of the Bills' preseason opener on August 9 versus the New York Giants, they might have to sign another kicker to the roster. In 2024, Bass was outside of the top-8 kickers for the fantasy football season and projects to struggle kicking due to having only two indoor games all season. The veteran comes in as the 12th ranked kicker in the latest RotoBaller draft rankings.