Commanders kicker Joey Slye’s confidence is growing
Joey Slye kicked for three NFL teams in 2021, but he feels much more confident.
Slye appeared before the media after practice Thursday and provided some insights into NFL kicking.
Being cut twice last season (Houston, San Francisco) was tough on Slye, but he stuck with his procedure and finished strongly last season with Washington. “So going into this year, I have that same mentality, the same process that I put forth last year. I’m in that same mindset. And obviously it’s good to end on a good note last year, but this is a brand new year. This is a brand new start of my process again and helping to just make sure that everything goes as planned.”
The former Virginia Tech kicker feels much more certain than he did his rookie year. “Yeah, so kind of the best way to put it into an analogy is when you walk in as a rookie or as a freshman in college, and you got chemistry and general calculus and all this stuff, and you got to take all these classes. For me, I was still kind of in that mindset as a rookie, there’s a lot to learn about kicking. There’s a lot of learn about my craft and what I wanted to do when I was kicking.”
Kicking at this level is much more complicated than we realize. “To break down kicking, I could talk to you for this for like eight, nine hours about every single little situation that happens on a kick. And so, I know exactly what happens if I miss left, I know exactly what happens if miss right. I know exactly what happens when I put it down the middle.”
A sophomore in high school is when Slye was encouraged by senior kicker Austin Greedy to think about going the route of kicker. He had also played linebacker and still today loves it, but knows his body is certainly better suited for being an NFL kicker.
He mentioned the winds at FedEx Field can sometimes be “crazy cross winds”. But then he surprisingly declared he liked kicking in a stadium that the winds can make it difficult, and then he added that he and punter Tress Way have both discussed it and like the challenge. “This is where I have to kick all the time and I’m gonna be the most consistent in my own stadium.”
Speaking of Way, Slye offered, “Tress has like one of the coolest personalities to be around. People talk about it all the time. He’s gonna probably have a career outside of football. I think he should be a great game show host. Like if Steve Harvey wants to give up Family Feud and Tress wants to go on. I think that’d be awesome.”
Slye connected on all 12 of his field goal attempts for Washington in 2021, including a 56-yarder. No wonder he is feeling more confident going into the 2022 season.
