Wil Lutz had the worst season of his career last year, converting just 74.2% of his field goal attempts, a percentage that ranked 32nd in the NFL.
Even after a down year, though, the Denver Broncos opted to trade a seventh-round draft pick to the New Orleans Saints earlier this week in exchange for the 29-year-old kicker.
Buy Broncos TicketsLutz suffered a core muscle injury last offseason and the Broncos believe his performance in 2022 suffered because of that injury. Now healthy again, Lutz is expected to have a bounce-back year in Denver.
“At the beginning of the whole process, he was a target for us,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said Tuesday. “… I was there through the whole beginning with Wil. [Then] he went through a core muscle injury, much like what Riley [Moss] is going through right now.
“Obviously, his numbers dropped off a little bit. He had a really good training camp for them. We have seen all of his kicks and we got pretty good information on how his practices went. A lot of it was a young player who we think is extremely talented. This is a place where kickers want to be with the altitude and the conditions. We’re excited about that.”
Lutz went 23-of-31 on field goal attempts last season and 33-of-33 on extra point attempts. In preseason this summer, the kicker went 4-of-4 on field goal attempts and 3-of-3 on extra point attempts.
Lutz played under Payton with the Saints from 2016-2020, and he played under Broncos assistant head coach Mike Westhoff from 2017-2018. Denver knows what they’re getting in the eighth-year kicker.
“Sean knows him well,” general manager George Paton said. “Westhoff knows him well. I always played against him when I was with the Vikings. His first five years were really good — upper 80 percent [in field goals made]. Then he had the injury and was down a little bit in 2022.
“In training camp, we targeted four or five teams, and targeted him. He was 4-for-4. He’s got a big leg, and he’s got the right mind. They obviously have knowledge of what he’s like, so we felt like it was the right move.”
After parting with veteran Brandon McManus earlier this year and bringing in Lutz during roster cuts, the Broncos saved about $2.05 million in salary cap space. We’ll soon find out if that was the right decision.
