Report: Chargers will sign kicker Caleb Sturgis
By Travis Wakeman
The Los Angeles Chargers have made fixing the kicking position one of their top offseason priorities, considering all options at the position.
The team already signed former second-round pick Roberto Aguayo after the season ended and now, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN, the team will sign free-agent kicker Caleb Sturgis as well.
Chargers are signing kicker Caleb Sturgis to a two-year deal, per source.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 16, 2018
Sturgis met with the Chargers on Friday, after the team had met with veteran kicker Sebastian Janikowski. Though Janikowski has one of the most powerful kicking legs the league has ever seen, the Chargers appear to have opted for the youth of Sturgis.
Sturgis was a fifth-round pick of the Miami Dolphins in 2013. He missed eight field goals in each of his two seasons with the team and in 2015, lost a kicking competition to Andrew Franks. He went out of work for about three weeks when the Philadelphia Eagles came calling after Cody Parkey went down with a season-ending injury.
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Sturgis then beat out Parkey the following season and appeared to be the kicker of the future for the Eagles. He was more accurate in Philly, but after making three field goals in the season opener last year, he suffered a hip injury that would cost him the rest of the season. The Eagles managed to sign Jake Elliott off the practice squad of the Cincinnati Bengals and the 61-yard field goal he made just two weeks later, the longest ever by a rookie, likely sealed the fate of Sturgis.
Now on his third team, Sturgis will be looking for a fresh start with a team that desperately needs better kicking. Had they had better kicking a season ago, the Chargers likely would have been a playoff team.
There will be a kicking competition in Los Angeles which currently has three participants, including Aguayo and Nick Rose. Don’t discount the idea of the team also drafting a kicker.
But as things currently stand, Sturgis would have to be considered a heavy favorite to win the job.