LANDOVER, Md. – Do you, I asked Jayden Daniels afterward, know anything about Austin Seibert?
And the future of the Washington Commanders’ franchise smiled.
“I’m still learning,” Daniels said. “He’s still new to this team. But he’s a good kicker.”
He was Sunday.
Seibert — signed off the street by Washington six days ago to replace Cade York — accounted for all of the Commanders’ points in their 21-18 win over the New York Giants, making seven field goals in seven attempts. It was Washington’s first division win since beating Dallas on Jan. 8, 2023, the last day of the 2022 regular season. (You remember that day; it was when everyone in town thought Sam Howell was going to be that dude around here at quarterback for the next several years. Ah, memories.)
Seibert — pronounced “Sigh-Bert,” he said afterward — set a franchise record with those seven field goals in one game, the last a 30-yarder at the gun to give Dan Quinn his first coaching victory in D.C., and to give Daniels his first win as a pro quarterback. It was the end of a busy day for the 27-year-old Seibert, who was also good from 27, 45, 26, 27, 29, and 33 yards. And after the last one, his new teammates, many of whom might have known his first name, picked him up on their shoulders.
“They were struggling. I’m kind of a meaty guy,” the 200-pound kicker said.
Seibert’s seven field goals tie him with nine others for second-place all-time among NFL kickers for the most made kicks in a game. The late Rob Bironas is the all-time single-game leader with eight made field goals in a 38-36 Tennessee Titans win over the Houston Texans on Oct. 21, 2007. The Commanders, who self-destructed in the red zone all day, and who had a 100-yard kickoff return from Austin Ekeler to open the game called back by a penalty, needed every one of them.
Special teams impacted the game all day. The Giants lost their place kicker, former Commander Graham Gano, on that opening kick return, with a hamstring injury. They then tried to use their punter, Jamie Gillan, on one extra point, but he pulled it. Afterward, New York didn’t try another kick, going for two-point conversions twice, missing on both, and going for it on fourth-and-4 from Washington’s 22 with a little more than two minutes left in an 18-all tie. But rookie wide receiver Malik Nabers dropped a Daniel Jones pass that would have moved the sticks.
Washington took advantage, with Daniels showing off his arm on a clutch 34-yard strike to Noah Brown that got the Commanders past midfield. They drove all the way to the Giants’ 11 before Seibert finished things off.
Seibert has ties to the Commanders. His agent, Dave Butz, is the son of the late, great Washington defensive tackle of the same name, who may or may not have been one of my all-time favorites from that era. Butz’s dad roomed often with Mark Moseley, the only kicker in the history of the NFL to be named league Most Valuable Player, in 1982, and who also wore No. 3 for Washington, as Seibert does now. The Seiberts and Butzes have known one another for years.
“Our grandfathers lived on the same street,” Butz texted Sunday.
A long time ago, a really good kicker named Eddie Murray told me that his job was to make anything inside of 40 yards, no matter the quality of the snap or the hold. But football has gotten so specialized in the last couple of decades. Now, it seems like everyone can crank them from 50 to 60 yards.
The question about Seibert in NFL circles was the strength of his leg, a notion belied by a YouTube post of Seibert blasting a 70-yarder while practicing in high school. Since being taken by the Browns in the fifth round of the 2019 draft, he’s bounced around, as so many in his line of work do. He’s kicked for the Browns, the Bengals, the Lions and the Jets between 2019 and last season. New York released him during final cuts after this year’s preseason, sticking with veteran Greg Zuerlein, who has one of the biggest legs in the league.
But the Commanders were impressed by what they saw from Seibert, in the rain, during their joint practices with the Jets in August.
“I remember, on the other field, they were making them, and on the field we were at, we didn’t have the best day,” Quinn said.
Seibert went on Washington’s “just in case” kicker list, which has been getting a workout since the team released veteran Brandon McManus in June, after a lawsuit was made public in which two flight attendants accused McManus of sexual assault during an overseas flight in 2023 when McManus kicked for the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Commanders signed McManus last March, before the details of the flight attendants’ lawsuit became public. (A Florida circuit court judge dismissed the lawsuit against McManus earlier this month, saying the two women had to provide their identities to proceed with the suit. An attorney for the two women said they would do so.)
After York missed two field goal attempts and kicked a kickoff out of bounds in Tampa last week, Washington called Seibert on Monday.
“Zero tape; that’s all Adam (Peters, the general manager), right there,” Quinn said.
Seibert had kept practicing since being waived, as kickers do while they wait for the next call, kicking at a pine tree outside his home, with his wife holding for him.
“That’s kind of the nature of the beast right now in the kicking world,” Seibert said. “It’s just so competitive. You have to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves. The good thing is, sure, I was on the street for a week. And then I got the call. But that’s why you stay ready, at all times. ‘Cause you never know when you’re going to get that call.
“I learned that last year as well. I bounced around a little bit, and I had, like six or seven workouts with teams. And it would be spur of the moment; ‘Hey, you’re flying out in three hours. Good luck.’ That’s kind of how it works. You’ve just got to go with the flow, stay confident in yourself and trust what you do.”
He didn’t seem fazed Sunday. The dance between a team’s long snapper, holder and kicker can look effortless, but that’s usually the result of months and months of work with one another during a week of practice, snap after snap, hold after hold. By contrast, Washington’s long snapper, Tyler Ott, and its holder, punter Tress Way, had three or four days to get their timing down with Seibert.
But, seven times, they were flawless together. And that bailed out an offense that did a lot of good things Sunday, but couldn’t finish. Seibert salvaged every drive, though. And that puts him in the pantheon of unlikely Washington hero kickers in the past few years, along with Nick Novak, Brian Johnson and Billy Cundiff.
“I think Tress just said, ‘Do your thing,’” Seibert said.
In the nomadic life of pro kickers, though, all that Austin Seibert is promised going forward is a flight to Cincinnati for a Monday night game with the Bengals next week. You’re only as good as your last kick.
OK, your last seven kicks.
— The Athletic’s Ben Standig contributed to this story.
(Photo of Austin Seibert: Greg Fiume / Getty Images)
