Restricted free agent kicker Wil Lutz has agreed to terms with the New Orleans Saints on a five-year contract extension. Lutz has spent the first four years of his career with the Saints after coming to the NFL as an undrafted free agent.
Saints announced they have agreed to terms with K Wil Lutz on a five-year contract.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 13, 2019
Wil Lutz Agrees to Five-Year Contract Extension With New Orleans Saints
In the NFL, kickers can lose games and cost people jobs. They stand on a line and either convert or don’t. There is no gray area. It’s good or it’s not. One of the main storylines of the 2018 season was the horrific kicking games of the Cleveland Browns, Minnesota Vikings, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Chicago Bears. As a result, placekickers are in high demand this off-season.
Lutz entered the 2019 off-season as a restricted free agent. Undrafted out of Georgia State of the Sun Belt Conference, Lutz initially signed with the Baltimore Ravens. With Justin Tucker firmly in place, Baltimore waived Lutz during the 2016 preseason. One week later, on September 5, 2016, Lutz signed on in New Orleans. He would be their Week One starter a few short days later.
Impressive Start to a Career
In his rookie campaign, Lutz successfully converted 28 of 34 field goals (82.4%) and 49 of 50 (98%) extra point attempts. In 2016, Lutz earned NFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors in Week Six and Week Eight.
Looking to improve upon an impressive rookie campaign, Lutz converted 31 of 36 field goals attempts in his second season. He improved his conversion percentage for four full points to 86.1 percent. He also went 47 of 51 on extra point attempts.
Most recently, 2018 saw Lutz take a leap to upper-echelon level among NFL kickers when he finished with a 93.3 percent conversion rate (28 of 30). Also, he converted 98.1 percent of his extra point attempts, having only missed one of the 58 attempts.
Lutz earned the NFC Special Teams Player of the Month in September 2018, having made 10 of 11 attempted field goals and 11 of 11 extra point attempts.
Lutz has a career 87 percent success rate and has yet to miss from inside of 30 yards. His career long is 57 yards.
While in college, Lutz also served as a punter and average 44.3 yards during his senior season.
