Greg Zuerlein, in his third season as the Jets' kicker, continues to live up to one of his colorful nicknames of Legatron and isn't going anywhere soon. But Austin Seibert, the backup kicker on the team's roster, may be guaranteeing himself fulltime NFL employment in 2024 even if he is released by the Green & White this preseason.
Both Zuerlein and Seibert converted "for what it's worth" historical field goals in helping the Jets come back from three ties to defeat the Commanders, 20-17, in their preseason opener Saturday afternoon.
Starting with Seibert, the fourth-year kicker whose most recent field goal of any kind came in his one-game fill-in role for Zuerlein in Game 2 at Dallas last season, handled the second-half kicking for the Green & White against Washington. That included an extra point and the game-winning, down-the-middle 34-yard field goal with 21 seconds to play to give the Jets their first lead of the game and the only one they needed.
Head coach Robert Saleh offered Seibert high praise when asked if he had considered going for two points after Izzy Abanikanda's touchdown run made it 17-16, Washington, with 7:09 to play.
"You know, no. I feel like we've got a really good second kicker," Saleh said. "I think Seibert is better than a lot of kickers that are employed in the NFL right now. I just wanted to give him some tape and give him an opportunity for other teams to see."
No team is paying its kickers incentives for hitting game-winning preseason kicks, but Seibert's boot still was of passing summer significance — it was only the third time a Jet hit a FG to win a home game in the final minute of regulation or in overtime, and the first time since 1994. That year, Nick Lowery converted a 38-yarder with 16 seconds to play as the Jets defeated the Giants, 13-10. Pat Leahy was the first kicker to do it, vs. Philadelphia in 1987.
Regarding Zuerlein, it's almost not news anymore that he supplied a big, long, accurate, important kick. Greg the Leg, who has 11 50-yards-plus field goals and the franchise's only 60-yard FG in his first two regular seasons in green, drilled his third preseason 50-yarder, actually from 56 yards out, to cap a short drive and give the Jets a 10-10 tie with no time left on the first-half clock.
Zuerlein's kick tied the mark for the longest home preseason field goal in franchise history. The only other 56-yarder came off the foot of first-year man Taylor Bertolet in the third quarter of the MetLife loss to New Orleans in 2019. There have been only three longer summer field goals by a Jets kicker, with the 59-yard long delivered by John Hall at Philadelphia near the end of the first half in 2001. That 59-yarder had been the franchise record in any Jets game, until Zuerlein's 60-yarder at Minnesota in 2022.
