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Less than a week after getting spurned by a kicker in free agency, the Jaguars have finally signed one. The team has agreed to terms on a one-year deal with Joey Slye. 

The Jaguars went into free agency looking for a kicker and they thought they had one last week when they agreed to terms with Wil Lutz. However, the contract from that deal never got signed, because Lutz ended up backing out of his commitment so that he could re-sign with the Broncos. 

With Lutz no longer a possibility, the Jaguars turned their attention to Slye. The former Commanders kicker has a strong leg: He hit a 61-yard field goal last season, which was the second-longest in the NFL. 

Although the leg strength is definitely there, Slye has struggled with his extra points. In 2023, he hit just 91.4% of his PAT attempts, which ranked outside the top-25 in the NFL. 

The 27-year-old spent two full seasons in Washington, but the Commanders decided not to bring him back for a third year with the team. Washington ended up signing Brandon McManus, who actually kicked for the Jaguars last season. 

As for Slye, although he's signing in Jacksonville, there's no guarantee that he's going to be the Jaguars kicker in 2024. The Jags already have a kicker on the roster in Riley Patterson, which means Slye will be competing for the job. 

Beating out Patterson won't be easy: Not only has Patterson been much more accurate on field goals in his career (88.1% to 82.3%), but he's also familiar with the Jaguars after spending the 2022 season in Jacksonville. 

The one advantage that Slye has is that he has a much bigger leg than Patterson. Slye has eight career field goals of 54 yards or longer while Patterson has zero. Patterson's career-long is just 53 yards and he's only hit 50% of his kicks from beyond 50 in his career (3 of 6) compared to Slye, who has hit 62.5% (20 of 32). Over the past three seasons, Slye has been even better from long range, drilling 11 of 15 from beyond 50 (73.3%).