New York Giants: What’s Wrong With Aldrick Rosas?

The New York Giants are coming off of their seventh straight loss. They now sit at the bottom of the division with a putrid 2-9 record. Nothing has been going the Giants’ way, and they have shown little to no improvement since last season.

There is one area in particular, however, that the Giants have regressed tremendously. This area is the kicker position. Aldrick Rosas has taken a huge step back after an impressive season in 2018. 2019 has been an utter disappointment for Rosas.

Kicking Woes

Aldrick Rosas was an incredibly efficient kicker in 2018. Rosas attempted 33 field goals in 2018 and made 32 of them. This included an impressive 6/6 from 40-49 yards and 4/5 from 50 yards or greater. Additionally, Aldrick made 96.9% of his extra points or 31 of 32 attempts.

Rosas has been wildly inconsistent in 2019. Instead, he has been consistent- consistently bad. Aldrick Rosas has missed a kick in each of the last five games. In the Giants’ latest loss to the Bears, Rosas missed 2 field goals. That is 6 points that Rosas left off the board in a game that the Giants lost by 5 points.

Aldrick Rosas has made 8 of his 12 field goal attempts. On top of that, the Giants’ kicker has only made 21 of his 24 extra-point attempts. Aldrick’s significant regression this season has been surprising and confusing. Fans are wondering, what is wrong with their team’s once highly-efficient kicker?

What’s Wrong?

It is only right to point out, as Giants legend Lawrence Tynes has on Twitter, that there are four components to field goal kicking: a snap, a hold, a kick, and protection. While the majority of the blame falls on Aldrick’s shoulders, there is blame to be held by the rest of the Giants’ kicking team.

To start, the Giants’ veteran long snapper, Zak DeOssie, has not been having his best season. On one of the Giants’ missed field goals yesterday, DeOssie dragged the snap across the ground to the place holder. This mistake most certainly could have messed up the timing on Rosas’s kick attempt and affected his accuracy.

Tynes also mentioned that it takes a certain mental toughness to be a reliable and consistent kicker. Aldrick Rosas has not seemed to have that mental toughness in the Giants’ recent games. Usually, a mentally tough player would make a mistake and not let it get to them, then correct it and move on. But Rosas missed two field goals in a row yesterday and did appear visibly upset.

It is understandable for Aldrick to be upset with himself in this situation. But he needs to respond with a good week in practice and a solid outing in next week’s game to prove his mental toughness. The way he will bounce back will prove his worth. At 2-9, with 5 games left on the schedule, no one’s job is safe. Aldrick Rosas has to step it up to keep his job next season.