Former Arizona Cardinals kicker Chandler Catanzaro called it a career on Saturday
The Arizona Cardinals were the first team to give kicker Chandler Catanzaro his NFL shot. Former Cardinals coach Bruce Arians loved how far he could kick it.
In 2014, he beat out incumbent kicker Jay Feely in training camp for the job with the Cardinals. Feely was the more accurate kicker, however Catanzaro didn’t have any trouble getting the ball to the end zone on kickoffs. That was the x-factor.
However the Cardinals finally had enough of Catanzaro and his inaccuracies after the 2016 season, which were also present in that ’14 camp, making it a mild surprise he beat out Feely. In that ’16 season, ‘Cat Man’ as he is otherwise known, he went 21-28 (a 75 percent clip) in field goal attempts and 43-47 (91.5 percent) in extra points.
In that offseason, Catanzaro signed as a free agent with the New York Jets. He spent one season with the Jets before moving on to play for two teams last season.
In 2018, ‘Cat Man’ ended up kicking for two different teams, the Carolina Panthers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He didn’t exactly light it up in Tampa before being cut in November and then was signed by the Panthers to finish out the season.
He wasn’t re-signed after the season and found himself back in training camp with the Jets this year. However his struggles continued.
He missed two extra points on Thursday night in the team’s preseason opening loss to the New York Giants. Judging by social media, Jets fans and media were wondering why ‘Cat Man’ didn’t have any competition in camp?
It is the same discussion some Cardinals fans are also having about current kicker Zane Gonzalez. For his part though, Gonzalez made a beautiful 55-yard field goal that would have been good from 70 against the Los Angeles Chargers on Thursday. He is likely going to remain without competition for now.
The life of an NFL kicker can come and go that quickly. It is too bad it didn’t work out for ‘Cat Man’. Even though he retired it would not be surprising to see some team in need mid-season ask him to come in and work out for them.