Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts, and Travis Kelce are all players who didn’t have the best of Week 1 games. However, those subpar performances didn’t cost them their jobs. That’s because they all have equity in the NFL, as well as with their respective teams so a bad outing doesn’t lead to a lost job.
The same can’t be said for Washington Commanders kicker Cade York, or rather, former Washington Commanders kicker Cade York. After missing two field goals in Washington’s 37–20 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, the Commanders unceremoniously waived York on Monday.
The misses were the only two field goal attempts for York, who did make both of his extra-point attempts. However, York also had a kickoff that went out of bounds, which led to a 15-yard penalty on the Commanders.
Perhaps also influencing Washington’s decision to move on from York was the fact that his adversary on the other side—Buccaneers kicker Chase McLaughlin—had a perfect kicking day. McLaughlin made all seven of his kicks, four extra-point attempts and three field goal attempts.
York’s Washington tenure will consist of just that one game, as the team only traded for him two-and-a-half weeks ago. There is some incentive in the Commanders cutting York before Week 2, as he was traded for a conditional seventh-round pick from the Cleveland Browns.
The condition was that if York was on Washington’s roster for two games, then the Commanders surrendered a seventh-round pick to Cleveland. However, since York was cut before reaching that second game, Washington owes no compensation to Cleveland.
York’s first miss of Sunday’s game came late in the first quarter, with the Bucs having already converted a pair of field goal tries and Washington looking for its first points of the game. York’s 47-yard attempt was just wide right, and that led to the Bucs getting good field position. They took advantage of that and score a touchdown on their ensuing drive.
After making an extra point midway through the second quarter after Washington’s first touchdown of the season, York’s kickoff went out of bounds. That again allowed good field position for the Bucs, and quarterback Baker Mayfield authored a 13-play drive down the field. McLaughlin then ended the drive by making a field goal just before the end of the first half.
York had a chance to redeem himself in the third quarter after rookie Jayden Daniels led a 12-play drive, which was Washington’s longest of the day, that stalled on the Bucs’ 38-yard-line. York was sent out on the field for a 56-yard attempt, and it also went wide right.
Once again, York’s error gifted the Bucs with favorable field position, and once again, they didn’t squander it. Mayfield found receiver Chris Godwin for a touchdown pass a few plays later, with McLaughlin capping off the score with an extra point. So, indirectly, York led to 17 points for the Bucs, which ended up winning by exactly 17 points.
While missing a 56-yarder isn’t as egregious as being off on a 47-yarder, the success of other NFL kickers on long attempts in Week 1 didn’t help. Kickers went 19 for 21 on field goal attempts of at least 50 yards in the opening week, ahead of Monday Night Football, with York and Baltimore’s Justin Tucker (53 yards) the only misses.
The Commanders don’t have another kicker on their roster, nor on their practice squad, so they’ll have to turn to a street free agent to fill the void. The reason the team originally traded for York in late August was because they allowed Joey Slye, who had been the team’s kicker since 2021, to leave in free agency. Slye ended up with the Patriots, and his season opener was much like McLaughlin’s—perfect. Slye made all three of his field goal attempts, his lone extra-point attempt, and had touchbacks on all four of his kickoffs.
After a standout college career at LSU, where York was a national champion and an All-American, he was a fourth-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, making him the only kicker selected in that year’s draft. The Browns drafted him, and his pro career couldn’t have started out any better as in his first NFL game, he was 4-for-4 on field goals, 2-for-2 on extra points, and made a 58-yard game-winning field goal with just eight second left to lift the Browns over the Carolina Panthers, 26-24. For his efforts, York was named the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week.
However, it was all downhill from there, as York missed eight field goals and two extra points over the rest of the season. He finished his rookie year with a 75 percent conversion rate on field goals, which ranked 31st out of 33 qualified kickers. As a result, Cleveland cut him before the 2023 season, and he didn’t appear in an NFL game during the entire year. Cleveland signed with York again, prior to the 2024 season, before dealing him to Washington on Aug. 22.
