It seems the New Orleans Saints was able to come up with a quick decision as to what it will do with its kickers. As confirmed by various reports, the team has just released Josh Scobee after two months after signing him.
Scobee officially joined the Saints after signing a one year deal with the team on March 4 of this year. This happened a couple of days before the team acquired kicker Kai Forbath. With two veteran kickers in its roster, it seems the Saints immediately realized that this was too big of a lineup.
As a result, the team decided to retain Forbath and let go of Scobee, ESPN reported. This came as a surprise especially since the Saints has not yet explained the reason why it released the athlete.
It would have been understandable if the decision was based on the result of a competition between Scobee and Forbath. However, since these two haven't faced off yet for the starter position, it's hard to speculate what the team was thinking of when it released Scobee.
Scobee started his NFL career in 2004 after he was drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars as the 137th overall pick during the 5th round. As a kicker, Scobee played a crucial role in helping the Jaguars win in many of its games.
During the same year he was drafted, he managed to complete 24 of his 31 field goals and gained 20 of his 21 free points. He was also named the AFC Special Teams player of the Week four times during his first five seasons in the NFL.
Then, in 2015, the Jaguars traded Scobee to the Pittsburgh Steelers in exchange for a sixth-round pick in this year's draft event. He immediately became the team's main kicker due to the season-ending injuries of Garret Hartley and Shaun Suisham.
Unfortunately, Scobee's time with the Steelers was not as great as when he was with the Jaguars. As a result, he was released by the team and replaced by Chris Boswell.
During his entire career in the NFL, Scobbe made a total of 241 field goals with a percentage of 80.1.
