It's no longer a secret that Jake Elliott is struggling. Fans were calling for his head after he missed a chip shot (29-yard field goal) just before halftime in Thursday's game against the New York Giants. The field goal would have extended the Eagles' lead to 16-10 before the half and would have made life much easier for Doug Pederson late in the game. The Eagles were lucky enough to still win the game even with Elliott's mistake.
Elliott has now missed three of his last four field goal attempts, and it's likely that those misses have contributed to Doug Pederson going for two-point conversions at the highest-rate in NFL history.
The Eagles appear to have Elliott on a short leash now, as they will reportedly be bringing in former Temple/Alabama kicker Austin Jones for a workout.
That report came out before the game (and before that missed chip shot last night). So the team might be interested in bringing other kickers in for a full-on try-out.
Jones transferred to Alabama in 2018 after graduating from Temple. He ended his Temple career as the No. 4 scorer in school history with 252 points and set a Temple school record with 19 consecutive made field goals as a junior in 2016. His great 2016 season led to him being named to the American Athletic Conference All-Academic Team. He also is the school record holder for field goals in a season with 23 successful field goals (on 28 attempts) for the Owls back in 2015.
Jones is actually the second kicker the team has worked out, as they worked out former CFL kicker/punter Lirim Hajrullahu back on October 15th.
These tryouts and likely not going to amount to a change in who is kicking field goals for the Eagles. Thanks to Howie Roseman handing Jake Elliott a monstrous five-year, $19.3 Million deal just last season, the Eagles would lose $5 Million in cap space if they were to cut him this season. To make matters worse, the Eagles would lose $2 Million in cap space if they were to release him in the offseason/before the 2021 season. The earliest they can release him and actually get cap relief would be in 2022.
At the end of the day, I wouldn't read too much into these kicker tryouts. With the salary cap expected to take a big dip in 2021, the Eagles can not handle any more dead money from contracts. Jake Elliott will likely be on this roster for a while, and the only way he won't be the one kicking field goals is if the team decides to carry two kickers on the roster and let Elliott sit on the bench and collect his massive paycheck.
