Jets made a mistake signing Cairo Santos

The New York Jets agreed to terms with kicker Cairo Santos but made a mistake bringing him in to replace Chandler Catanzaro.

When it comes to the kicking situation of the New York Jets, it looks like they made a mistake in replacing Chandler Catanzaro through free agency. Catanzaro was acquired by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Jets acted quickly in signing kicker Cairo Santos as his replacement.

It’s hard to tell if this was a move done out of panic or maybe just to at least have a veteran kicker in the mix. Santos is coming off not one but two injury reserve-related roster cuts from 2017. Last season, Santos was on both the Kansas City Chiefs and Chicago Bears but was cut by each team due to dealing with a lingering groin injury.

Santos missed playing in football games due to this as when a kicker has groin injuries, that should be a red flag that it’s one of those things that doesn’t go away altogether. Now, if the Jets offense was a powerhouse and they scored touchdowns at will, it’s a whole different story.

The Jets tend to overwork their kickers since they’re not always able to punch in key drives with a touchdown and tend to resort to kicking field goals. This has been the case for going on two straight years now, hence the consecutive 5-11 final season records.

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It’s puzzling as to why the Jets didn’t wait until the 2018 NFL Draft to draft a kicker or better yet, see what Ross Martin was up to. It’s no secret that last summer in training camp, Martin was a better kicker than Catanzaro but the Jets opted to go with veteran experience over the unknown and went with the Big Cat.

Now, Catanzaro is out of the picture and the Jets settled for a kicker who has potential but is coming off a shortened season due to a groin injury that has potential to come back next season if he’s overworked. Santos is good, but not great. Martin always had a great leg and the upside to be a solid kicker but the Jets never gave him a shot that he earned at the end of last summer.

Unfortunately, the Jets dropped the ball here as the Santos move looks like one out of desperation since they were probably surprised that Catanzaro took his services elsewhere. Hopefully, things work out with Santos since if they don’t, the Jets should have just been more patient and brought back Ross or drafted a kicker with one of their late-round picks.