ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Denver Broncos continued to address key positions with their special teams units Tuesday by waiving kicker Elliott Fry with an injury designation and signing rookie long-snapper Jack Landherr.
Fry outperformed fellow kicker Brett Maher during the Broncos' preseason game last Friday by making a 55-yard field goal at Arizona against a missed 50-yard field goal attempt while Maher missed from 47 yards and had a 52-yard field goal blocked.
But Fry tweaked a lower body muscle. Fry should be fine with a lower body muscle that is considered day-to-day but the Broncos needed a roster spot to accomodate the signing Tuesday of rookie long-snapper Jack Landherr.
To be clear, Maher has not won the kicking competition even though he is currently the only kicker on the Broncos' roster. At least not yet.
“We’ll go day to day with where we’re at with the kickers,'' said head coach Sean Payton. "I’ve said this before to you guys – Brett had a good day today. He’s competing – he’s competing with himself because he has 31 other teams. Now there’s probably seven teams that have a real kicking battle. So he’s competing with those guys that come out of those clubs.”
Several teams have kicking battles going on during training camp and the preseason and the Broncos will be scouting all those kickers who become available before the start of the regular season.
The Broncos have been searching for a permanent kicker since releasing veteran Brandon McManus before the start of OTAs in May.
Maher, who had an excellent regular season and poor postseason for the Dallas Cowboys last year, has kicked well in practice but will need a better preseason performance this Saturday at San Francisco than he had at Arizona.
Landherr snapped the previous four years for coach Chip Kelly at UCLA. He was part of the Broncos' rookie tryout in May and did well enough to eventually be brought back. He will compete with the Broncos' current long-snapper Mitchell Fraboni for the season-opening roster spot.
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