The Carolina Panthers‘ kicking battle isn’t exactly booming at the moment.
Friday night’s Fan Fest, held in front of a buzzing Bank of America Stadium crowd, featured the team’s first big scrimmage of training camp. The kicking duties for the session belonged to undrafted rookie Ryan Fitzgerald, who got the nod over veteran Matthew Wright.
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But unfortunately for the 24-year-old youngster, this practice wouldn’t be one to remember, at least fondly.
Head coach Dave Canales was asked about Fitzgerald’s performance afterwards.
“Yeah, he missed a couple,” Canales told reporters. “So we’re just learning about the guys that we have.”
Fitzgerald successfully converted on just one of his three field goal attempts on the evening. His misses, per Joe Person of The Athletic, came from 48 yards and around 40 yards.
Canales was then asked if it was nice to see Fitzgerald work on the regular field goal posts instead of the skinny posts, which have been used in the practices prior.
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“Yeah, it was good to see him with the whole environment,” he replied. “And even right there, that situation was down three [points], to tie it up, to go to overtime. So a little extra added pressure.”
Fitzgerald kicked at Florida State University for five seasons. He missed on only two of his 34 field goal tries over the past two years.
He’s been in competition with Wright—a 29-year-old journeyman who has picked up stops with nine different teams since 2019.
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This article originally appeared on Panthers Wire: Panthers training camp: K Ryan Fitzgerald has rough outing at Fan Fest