The Jacksonville Jaguars won their first game of the season and their first game in 21 tries last Sunday when kicker Matthew Wright nailed a 53-yard game-winner against the Miami Dolphins. It was an epic moment for Wright, who had been working as a software engineer just weeks before.
However, a great success for Wright means that someone else had to make room for him to do so. That person is Josh Lambo, who had been with Jacksonville as a kicker since 2017. While he goes down as the most accurate kicker in franchise history (91.6%), Lambo had been struggling in 2021, missing all three field-goal attempts on the year. It’s no surprise then that Lambo was released by the team on Tuesday.
The team signed Wright to the practice squad on September 27 and the two had been battling in practice ever since. Lambo, who hadn’t played since Week 3, surely saw the writing on the wall when Wright made three field goals on Sunday, including the game-winner. That goes double after Urban Meyer said on Monday that Wright had “earned the right to be the starting kicker right now.”
Never forget that for ~3 seasons, Josh Lambo was the best kicker in football and played for your #Jaguars. Helped elevate the 2017 AFCCG squad, and drilled 76/80 FG attempts, including 12/13 from 50+, from 2017-2020 for the Jags. Respect. pic.twitter.com/j33SK7vbIL
— Jordan de Lugo (@jordandelugo) October 19, 2021
Lambo just wasn’t able to get back on track following a hip injury that put him on injured reserve twice in 2020. Over that time, the Jaguars have had six kickers attempt a PAT or field goal, the most for any NFL franchise since the 1970 league merger. However, it looks like they’ve finally found their guy in Wright.
[NFL.com]
