The Giants have signed former Bengals kicker Mike Nugent:
A look at kicker Mike Nugent's NFL Career
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -
The Giants are going to have a kicking competition after all.
Mike Nugent, a 13-year veteran who has played in 158 regular-season and postseason games, was signed by the team today. He will vie for the job with Aldrick Rosas, who has never played in a regular-season game but had been the only kicker on the Giants' roster.
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The Giants had an opening on their roster after rookie safety Jadar Johnson announced his retirement over the weekend.
Nugent, 35, has played for the Jets, Tampa Bay, Arizona, and for the previous seven seasons, the Cincinnati Bengals. He has made 236 of 292 field goal attempts (80.8%) and 344 of 355 extra point tries for 1,052. That ties him with Nick Folk and Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith for 50th on the NFL's career list.
Nugent has scored more than 100 points in a season six times, including a career-high 132 in 2011. He has made 11 of 28 field goal attempts (39.3%) from 50 or more yards. Nugent has had touchbacks on 30.1% of his kickoffs (217 of 720).
In five postseason games – one with the Jets and four with Cincinnati – he hit seven of eight field goal attempts and all five of his PATs. In a 2014 AFC Wild Card Game, he kicked a 57-yard field goal vs. Indianapolis, the second-longest postseason three-pointer in NFL postseason history.
Last year, Nugent played the first 13 games for the Bengals. He had the same numbers on field goals and extra points, making 23 of 29 attempts. Nugent was released on December 13.
Nugent entered the NFL as a second-round draft choice by the Jets (No. 47 overall) in 2005, from Ohio State. He played in all 16 games in each of his first three seasons, but just one in 2008, when he suffered a quad injury on a kickoff in the season opener at Miami. Although Nugent recovered, the Jets chose to stay with Jay Feely as their kicker that season.
In 2009, Nugent played the first four games of the season for Tampa Bay, and the final two with the Cardinals. He signed as a free agent with the Bengals on April 23, 2010 and the following season, set franchise records for field goals (33) and points (132).
Nugent set 22 school records at Ohio State. He is a native of Centerville, Ohio.
Rosas was in the Tennessee Titans training camp last year, when he made his only field goal attempt, from 33 yards. He played one season at Southern Oregon, where he made 16 of 21 field goal attempts, with a long of 48 yards.
