Bills send warning shot to veteran kicker with free agent signing ahead of Week 7 game vs. Titans

Tyler Bass has been the Bills‘ kicker since 2020, but if he doesn’t get things turned around soon, his time in Buffalo could soon be coming to an end. 

After a rough game on Monday night that saw him miss a field goal and an extra point against the Jets, the Bills responded this week by adding a kicker to the roster. The team worked out four kickers on Wednesday before making the decision to sign Lucas Havrisik to the practice squad one day later. 

Bass is still the kicker in Buffalo, but he’s definitely on thin ice. Bills general manager Brandon Beane said that if he can find a better kicking option he’d have to at least consider it. 

“No one’s hiding from it, but at the same time, he hasn’t done as well as he or we had hoped,” Beane said, via the Buffalo News. “So, we’ve got to continue to look and monitor. And if there’s a better option that we have to turn to then, you know, we’ll do that.”

Beane did add that the Bills would prefer to keep Bass rather than making a change. 

“We want him to be our guy,” the GM said, via NFL.com. 

Bass is off to a rough start this season. The 27-year-old has only hit 75% of his field goals, which ranks 28th in the NFL. The ugly part for the Bills is that all three of his misses have come from inside 50 yards, including a 47-yarder that he missed during the second half of Buffalo’s 23-20 win over the Jets on Monday night. Bass is hitting just 40% of his kicks between 40 and 49, which is definitely a concern for the Bills. He’s one of only two kickers in the NFL with three misses from that range (Giants kicker Greg Joseph is the other). 

The veteran kicker has also struggled on extra points. Going into 2024, Bass’ career accuracy rate on extra points was 97%, but his year, he’s hitting just 90%, which ranks ahead of just four other kickers. As Beane said, the Bills would prefer to keep Bass, but if he misses any kicks on Sunday against the Titans, it won’t be surprising if Buffalo makes the decision to move on from its former sixth-round pick.