EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) - The New York Giants have decided to give Aldrick Rosas some competition for the placekicking job.
The Giants signed 13-year veteran Mike Nugent on Tuesday in a move to up the pressure on the 22-year-old Rosas, who has never kicked in a regular-season NFL game.
“I’ve always wanted to play 20 years,” said Nugent, who spent the past seven seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals. “I’m going to see what I can do, make sure I stay in shape and try to keep up with the younger guys and to get to a point where the ball is going where I’m aiming it, and keep at it.”
Nugent, who has been working out in Arizona, said the Giants called him recently.
Rosas had been the only placekicker on the roster for the offseason. He got all the work in organized team activities and the minicamp.
After practice, coach Ben McAdoo said the team just wanted him to face some competition.
Nugent, who was released by the Bengals in December after missing six field goals and six extra points, thinks he can still do the job.
“I’m really excited to get out there and just do my thing and apply what I’ve learned over the years,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s kind of like a golf tournament: it’s not so much about how everyone else does, it’s about how you do.”
This will be a return to the area for Nugent, who was draft by the Jets. He made 23 of 29 on both his field goal and extra point attempts last season.
Rosas’ only attempt NFL field goal came in a preseason game with Tennessee last summer. It was good.
Rosas was not surprised the Giants added another kicker, adding all he intends to do is to keep working on his own game.
“Every day I came out here trying to compete with the open spots around the league,” Rosas said. “Having Mike out here, there is an extra guy I can talk to, that I can look at and emulate what he is doing, or things I can pick up.”
Josh Brown and Robbie Gould kicked for the Giants last season, with Gould taking over after Brown was released because of domestic violence problems.
Gould signed with the San Francisco 49ers as a free agent in the offseason.
Nugent also has played for the Jets, Tampa Bay and Arizona. He has made 236 of 292 field goal attempts and 344 of 355 extra points, scoring more than 100 points in a season six times.
NOTES: This was the Giants’ first day in pads and linebacker B.J. Goodson upset receiver Sterling Shepard with a little extra bump early in practice. … Fourth-year defensive tackle Jay Bromley played well in the half-line drills. He is competing with rookie Dalvin Tomlinson and Robert Thomas for the job that opened when Johnathan Hankins signed with the Colts. … Defensive captain Jonathan Casillas knocked free agent fullback Jacob Huesman off his feet for the best hit of the practice.
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