Arizona Cardinals moving forward with K Chad Ryland
· Yahoo Sports
When the 2025 season began, it appeared that Arizona Cardinals kicker Chad Ryland would pick up where he left off from the season before.
Visit newsbetting.club for more information.
After replacing an injured Matt Prater, Ryland made 28-of-32 field-goal attempts that included perfection on four from more than 50 yards (51, 55, 57, 58) and helping win a few games with last-second kicks.
In the first five games last season, it was more of the same with 8-of-10 field-goal successes and the only misses on a blocked 46-yard attempt and one from 57 yards. One of the makes was from 57 yards.
However, punter and holder Blake Gillikin suffered a back injury in Week 5 and spent the remainder of the season on injured reserve. After that, Pat O’Donnell and then Matt Haack did the punting and holding for the remainder of the season, and Ryland’s season went downhill.
In the final 12 games, he was 17-for-23 on field goals (73.9 percent) with three misses on eight 50-yard-plus kicks and also failed to come through in some critical situations in close losses.
- A missed 33-yard attempt in a 27-24 overtime loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 12.
- A miss from 43 yards the following week in a 20-17 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
- A 44-yard miss in a Week 16 26-19 loss to the Atlanta Falcons.
The Cardinals signed kicker Josh Karty from the Los Angeles Rams practice squad on Dec. 23 after he was replaced by Harrison Mevis following some issues of his own. Karty was inactive for the final two games of the season, but was signed for 2026 to provide competition for Ryland.
Karty was 10-for-15 on field goals for the Rams with three of the misses from 26, 36 (blocked) and 39 yards. He also missed three extra points. Mevis was signed to the practice squad after Karty missed an extra point and a field-goal attempt 39 yards in a 34-10 win over the New Orleans Saints in Week 9.
When Mevis proved up to the task, Karty was waived on Nov. 28 and signed to the practice squad as insurance before the Cardinals came calling.
Ryland and Karty competed during offseason work and Karty was waived during the final week of OTAs on June 4.
Special teams coordinator Michael Ghobrial explained, “During Phase 2 and Phase 3, we get a lot of opportunities to kick with the team (and) by ourselves, so all that is getting evaluated and I believe Chad is doing a really good job. You see the leg strength, you see a proven guy that’s done it at a high level in this league. I’m really excited to work with Chad.
“And with Josh, I got nothing but respect for Josh. He’s in a good mental space. He’s kicked the ball well and he’s truly a starting kicker in this league.”
When asked why Ryland had issues with misses to the right last season, Ghobrial said, “Traditionally when righty kickers miss in general, you want to miss right. Usually, when they're missing left, they're overcompensating and they're hooking the ball too much. With Chad, I think the biggest thing that he focuses on is finishing downfield. When he finishes downfield, that ball goes straight online through the target. So, that has been a point of emphasis for him. We always give a player at least one or two things that they got to work on in the offseason, and he's been very intentional and deliberate to make certain that those things get fixed.
“He has done a nice job. He treats a PAT like it's a 60-yarder; treats a 60-yarder like it's a PAT. Every kick is the same kick to him. So, I'm really pleased with him and his accuracy and how he's developed that and stays connected to the thing he had to get better at.”
As for what “finishing downfield” means, Ghobrial said, “When a kicker finishes downfield, that means on impact. A lot of kickers, when they miss, tend to fall out of the kick. So, if this was the ball, when they make contact, they fall out of the kick as opposed to kick and finish downfield. Whether it's their target straight ahead, whether it's their target going right or their target going left, you want to see them finish downfield. Guys that kind of jam themselves almost force themselves to fall out of the kick at times, or if their plant step right before contact is too shallow or too deep, that could affect that as well.”
Ghobrial added that “there's a lot of little intricacies before that even happens, but you can't give a kicker all those things. You give him one thing to focus on, one swing thought. Obviously, Chad has had a lot of success in this league. So, that's the only thing he really needs to understand and he does, so he's doing a good job with that.”
As for the operation between the kicker, snapper and holder related to Gillikin’s absence for most of the 2025 season, Ghobrial said, “The synergy between the three of those guys is very important. That usually amounts to a successful operation and usually amounts to making kicks. Whenever you're changing the operation, it affects the kicker. Now, we deal with professionals, and it's our job as coaches, our job as players to be able to make certain that regardless of the situation, you find a way and you get it done.
“But there are certain things that you got to learn and you got to learn it quick. Sometimes within a week and unfortunately that happened last year where those situations happened. It's part of being in this league. We're not going to make excuses, but we hope that we can stay healthy throughout the season and keep the same guys so we can keep that synergy going.”
Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire's Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.
.oembed-frame {width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;border:0;}
This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Arizona Cardinals moving forward with K Chad Ryland