Tennessee's kicker competition has been turned on its head. Throughout the summer, Caleb Shudak and Trey Wolff had been duking it out for the Titans kicker job. With two weeks of the preseason in the books, however, it doesn't seem like either one of them was able to impress enough to allow Mike Vrabel to give one of them the job. Instead, they both got the boot.
On Tuesday, the Titans released both Shudak and Wolff, clearing the deck on their kicker competition. As both of those kickers head out, former Lions placekicker Michael Badgley is coming in as the team also announced that it has agreed to terms with the veteran.
Throughout the preseason, both Shudak and Wolff were able to hit all of their extra point attempts, but Wolff did come up wide right on a 48-yarder attempt against the Bears in the exhibition opener. During last weekend's win over Minnesota, he converted a 22-yard chip shot. As for Shudak, he hit a 41-yarder before halftime of the Bears game but did not have an attempt in Week 2 of the preseason.
As for Badgley, this is technically his second stint with the Titans. Back in 2021, he was signed by Tennessee as a replacement for the injured Sam Ficken for the Week 1 opener against the Cardinals. However, it was a rather forgetful showing for Badgley, who missed a 46-yard field goal and one of his two extra-point attempts in the loss.
The 28-year-old entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2018 out of Miami and latched on with the Chargers where he'd kick for the next three seasons. After that brief showing with the Titans, he'd make stops in Indianapolis, Chicago, and Detroit. In 12 games for the Lions last season, Badgley connected on 83.3% of his field goals and hit all 33 of his extra-point attempts.
Badgley had signed on with the Commanders this summer but lost out in a competition with Joey Slye.
