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Washington Commanders place kicker Drew Stevens (19) kicks the ball during an NFL preseason football game against the Miami Dolphins on Friday in Landover, Md.<\/p>\n
Associated Press<\/p>\n
ASHBURN, Va. \u2014 Former Iowa football kicker Drew Stevens got the call from Washington Commanders special teams coordinator Larry Izzo on Monday.<\/p>\n
Fresh off his NFL preseason debut against the Miami Dolphins, the Commanders had to make a decision about the kicker position battle. Does Washington go with Jake Moody, who the organization signed in the offseason after time with the Chicago Bears and San Francisco 49ers last year, or undrafted rookie Stevens?<\/p>\n
Izzo let Stevens know he earned the job, making the news official Aug. 18.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly it kind of feels the same way that I have been feeling in terms of the way I\u2019ve approached it,\u201d Stevens said during training camp Tuesday morning. \u201cBut it feels good, I don\u2019t really know how much more to say than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former Hawkeye holds Iowa\u2019s program record for total field goals made (76), most 50-plus-yard field goals (12) and longest field goal (58 yards). He\u2019s second in scored career points (352 points), and set the Iowa freshman record with 16 made field goals.<\/p>\n
Stevens went undrafted in the 2026 NFL Draft, but signed with the Commanders shortly after the draft ended. Just a few months later, he earned his first starting job in the NFL.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoach Izzo called me on the phone and told me, and it was crazy because I was not expecting it at all,\u201d Stevens said. \u201cBut I mean, shoot, this is my first rodeo, I\u2019m just trying to play good on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Commanders have two more preseason games before the season begins Sept. 13 against the Philadelphia Eagles. Washington struggled to find a long-term answer as a kicker, using seven players at that position in just the last two seasons.<\/p>\n
Head coach Dan Quinn is hoping the former Hawkeye can end that problem in D.C. It\u2019s a team that hasn\u2019t had a kicker who could make a 60-yard attempt since 2023.<\/p>\n
Stevens said he\u2019s been getting used to the difference between collegiate and pro field goal attempts, but it hasn\u2019t affected how he prepares every kick.<\/p>\n
He knows the mental side of the game is especially important. It\u2019s how Stevens can become the answer the Commanders have been searching for.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t changed anything,\u201d Stevens said. \u201cI\u2019m still sticking to what I believe is going to work. I\u2019m not lacking conviction in certain areas, I\u2019m just believing that my thing is going to be good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, Quinn wants Stevens to kick as much as possible moving forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought Drew established himself,\u201d Quinn said. \u201cI thought he\u2019s kicking it pure and clean, so it\u2019s important for him to have the next two games were he gets all the kicks, all the moments. It was a good competition, but I thought Drew earned it, and now we\u2019re moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Washington Commanders place kicker Drew Stevens (19) kicks the ball during an NFL preseason football game against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":977803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2069],"tags":[427,55768,7,6,855,111,2480],"class_list":["post-977802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-washington-commanders","tag-commanders","tag-drew-stevens","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-washington","tag-washington-commanders","tag-washingtoncommanders"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117124627706473804","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=977802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/977803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=977802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=977802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=977802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}