Bills sign kicker amid Tyler Bass struggles
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – The Bills signed kicker Lucas Havrisik to the practice squad Thursday, giving them an in-house option should they decide to make a change from veteran Tyler Bass.
Havrisik, 25, was undrafted out of Arizona. He played in nine games last season for the Rams, converting just 75.0% of field goals and 86.4% of extra points in his only NFL experience.
Bills general manager Brandon Beane confirmed the team was working out a number of kickers after Wednesday's practice and acknowledged the Bills need more from Bass.
"T Bass would be the first to tell you, it hasn't gone the way he would like it – and quite frankly, the way we like it," Beane said. "The great thing about Tyler is, we've had conversations with him, he's very aware, he knows we're working out people, and he understands it's a production business. We have to make decisions [on] what's best for the team."
Bass, a five-year veteran the Bills drafted in 2020, ranks 27th in field goal percentage (75.0) and 25th in extra point percentage (90.0) this season. He missed a 47-yard field goal and an extra point in Week 6 against the Jets and is just 3 of 6 on field goals longer than 40 yards this season. Last season, he ranked 23rd in field goal percentage (82.8%), and his slump continued during training camp.
"We want nothing more than Tyler to be our guy," Beane said. "We [re-]signed him. He felt he had really earned the deal we paid him an offseason ago. But it is a production business. He knows he's got to make those kicks. ... No one's hiding from it. But at the same time, he hasn't done as well as he or we had hoped, so we've got to continue to look and monitor, and if there's a better option that we have to turn to, then we'll do that."
Teams can elevate two practice squad players to their gameday roster each week if they choose. Those players revert to the practice squad after the game without being subject to waivers. Players can be brought up three times through this method, but a fourth elevation would require them to be added to the 53-man roster.
Bass signed a four-year extension worth up to $21 million in April 2023. His best year was 2021, when he made 87.5% of field goals and was 51 for 51 on extra points.
If the Bills were to release Bass, it would result in a dead cap charge of about $3 million next season, according to salary website Spotrac, but the Bills would not be hit with an additional cap charge this season. (They would, however, have to pay a new kicker.)
Havrisik (pronounced HAVE-ruh-sick) has also spent time with the Colts and Browns. WR Ahmarean Brown was released from the practice squad in a corresponding move.