ASHBURN, Va. — The Washington Commanders signed 27-year-old kicker Austin Seibert Monday after Cade York missed both field goal opportunities against the Buccaneers Sunday. York also booted a kickoff out of bounds after the Commanders first touchdown drive, giving the ball to Tampa Bay on the 40-yard line.
Washington received York the final week of Training Camp in a trade with Cleveland that would have sent the Browns a seventh round draft pick in 2025 if York kicked in two games for the Commanders this season.
Washington also cut kickers Riley Patterson and Ramiz Ahmed this preseason.
Entering week two, head coach Dan Quinn is hoping to find some consistency at the position.
"Yeah, it’s not how you draw it up for sure, but I will say that’s the nature of competing. You keep digging and find that we’re going to get that part right," said Quinn. "There are fantastic guys in terms of Tress (Way) and Tyler (Ott) and other guys here to go through that, but that speaks to the competitive nature of Adam and the staff to keep digging to find. We’re really pumped on Austin being here and looking forward to him getting started today."
Seibert enters his sixth season in the NFL, playing for his fifth team. He was drafted by Cleveland in 2019 where he hit 25 of his 29 field goal attempts. Since then, he's only had 27 regular season field goal attempts.
"I’ve bounced around a little bit and that’s fine," said Seibert. "That’s just the journey that I’ve been on, and I proved myself enough last year for the Jets to re-sign me and competed through camp and proved myself enough through the preseason to get this opportunity here and my plan is to continue doing that."
Seibert, who was with the Jets this preseason, kicked the game winner against Washington in the preseason opener.
Quinn says he remembers Seibert drilling kicks in the pouring rain during joint practices with New York, something Seibert said was brought up when he was signed.
"It was mentioned, but at the same time all you can do is put your head down, stay in your lane and focus on yourself and those values and just take one step in the right direction every day," the kicker said.