5 Panthers not named Sam Darnold with the most at stake in 2021

Joey Slye – Carolina Panthers K

The kicker is one of those positions that you don’t think about unless there’s an issue and I’ve written about the position multiple times recently and with good reason.

Since replacing the seemingly declining Graham Gano, Joey Slye has been a real mixed bag as far as performance goes. While the Carolina Panthers seemingly have great belief in his ability, the former undrafted free agent simply didn’t cash in on those opportunities in 2020.

In Slye’s defense, some of those opportunities would have been record-breaking achievements and one of those came within inches of being realized. However, even with his improved accuracy in Year 2, he still finds himself right in the middle of the pack in regards to the rest of the league.

Another thing to consider when thinking about his game is that after going an impressive eight of 11 on kicks of more than 50 yards in 2019, Slye only converted one of his six attempts in 2021.

Even if a few of those were over 60 yards, that’s still not a promising stat especially when you remember the team’s well-documented red-zone struggles last season.

The writing has been on the wall for Slye for some time as well, “perform now or you won’t have a job soon”, as the team has already brought in one player as competition this offseason in Matt Ammendola. You don’t bring in competition at a position that you have confidence in.

So this is very much a make-or-break year for the Virginia Tech standout.

If Slye doesn’t raise his game to at least above average this season, he could easily find himself on another team in 2022 or even on the street.