Justin
Rohrwasser.
Justin
Rohrwasser.
Marshall
"The Patriots studied 250 of his kicks and spent the first pick on a kicker in the whole draft; he never made a field goal attempt in a regular-season NFL game."Pre-draft read
Rohrwasser is a big-bodied placekicker with a genuinely powerful leg carried in a 6-3, 230-pound frame. The swing is compact and repeatable, the ball comes off flat and hard, and he drove both of his 50-plus attempts through as a senior, including a 53-yard walk-off against Western Kentucky. Kickoffs are the quiet strength: he places the ball in corners and lives on hang time rather than pure distance.
The accuracy is the part that needed polish. He was a 75 percent kicker over two FCS seasons and 78.6 percent across two years at Marshall, with a senior surge to 85.7 percent that came late enough to look like development rather than a settled baseline. Bad weather tape in Huntington gave evaluators a leg they trusted more than the aim.
Cold-weather team that values kickoff hang time and placement as much as field goal range
Year 1 camp competition as a kickoff-first specialist; ceiling is a starting placekicker with 55-yard range
A dome roster that demands immediate high-percentage accuracy inside 45 yards with no developmental patience
He needed a season holding a job behind a veteran, which a fifth-round pick and an open depth chart never allowed.
Justin Rohrwasser compilation
Pre-draft reel of his Marshall field goals showing the compact swing and flat ball flight.
Justin Rohrwasser field goals 6 for 6
Perfect six-make outing that captures the range and consistency scouts bought in 2019.
2020 NFL Draft: Marshall Kicker Justin Rohrwasser Selected 159th Overall by New England Patriots
Local coverage of the selection that made him the first kicker off the board.
Rohrwasser grew up in Clifton Park, New York, playing soccer as a goalie and kicking for only two high school seasons at Catholic Central. He signed with Rhode Island and handled kicking duties for two years, going 9-for-13 as a freshman in 2015 and 6-for-7 in 2016 while leading the Rams in scoring both seasons. He transferred to Marshall, sat out 2017, and inherited the Thundering Herd job in 2018.
The senior year is what got him drafted. He made 18 of 21 field goals with a long of 53, hit both attempts from beyond 50, earned first-team All-Conference USA honors, and produced the moment scouts remembered: four field goals against Western Kentucky on Homecoming, capped by a 53-yard game-winner as time expired. Bill Belichick said the Patriots had studied roughly 250 of his kicks going back to Rhode Island.
The board did not have him drafted at all. Most services listed him as a priority free agent in a specialist class where Tyler Bass and Rodrigo Blankenship carried more consistent charts. New England had just released Stephen Gostkowski and treated the position as a need rather than a luxury, making Rohrwasser the first kicker off the board at 159, roughly three rounds ahead of where the industry had him.
- 01
Leg strength
A true 50-plus leg who converted both of his attempts from beyond 50 as a senior, with a 53-yard walk-off winner against Western Kentucky.
- 02
Kickoffs
Places the ball in corners and prioritizes hang time over raw distance, a coverage-friendly skill that Belichick specifically praised on draft weekend.
- 03
Cold-weather tape
Kicked in New England and Huntington conditions across five college seasons, so the evaluation was never a warm-climate projection.
- 04
Senior accuracy
Finished 18-for-21 with first-team All-Conference USA honors, his most efficient season and the one that pushed him onto draft boards.
- 05
Compact mechanics
Repeatable swing out of a soccer background with a low, hard ball flight that holds line in wind rather than drifting on tail.
- 01
Career accuracy
A 75 percent kicker at Rhode Island and 78.6 percent across two Marshall seasons, numbers that sit well below what NFL teams pay for.
- 02
Small senior sample
One 21-attempt season carried the entire evaluation, a thin base for projecting a specialist into a starting job.
- 03
Level of competition
Two FCS seasons and two Conference USA seasons, with no meaningful pressure-kick history against power-conference defenses.
- 04
Draft capital risk
Boards had him as a priority free agent, so a fifth-round selection gave him almost no runway if he lost a camp competition.
| Yr | Team | G | FGM | FGA | FG% | XPM | XPA | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Rhode Island | 10 | 9 | 13 | — | 16 | 16 | — |
| 2016 | Rhode Island | 11 | 6 | 7 | — | 23 | 24 | — |
| 2018 | Marshall | — | 15 | 21 | — | — | — | — |
| 2019 | Marshall | — | 18 | 21 | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 21 | 48 | 62 | — | 118 | 123 | — |
Rhode Island released season-by-season field goal and extra point totals (15-of-20 FG, 39-of-41 XP across 2015-16) and Marshall totals were 33-of-42 FG and 79-of-82 XP across 2018-19, so season field goal splits are 15-of-21 in 2018 and 18-of-21 in 2019. Marshall did not publish per-season extra point splits, so those cells are left unset rather than zero-filled. He redshirted in 2017 after transferring, which is why no 2017 season appears.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Strong-legged specialist who wins jobs on range and loses them on stretches of inaccuracy.
Big-legged kicker who eventually converted at a high rate after years of finding the right situation.
Drafted specialist whose confidence collapsed in his first professional camp and never recovered.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
It went wrong immediately, and not only on the field. Within hours of the pick, a Three Percenters tattoo on his arm drew national attention; he denounced the group, said he had gotten it as a teenager to support the military, and had it removed. Then a hamstring injury limited him early in his first camp, New England signed Nick Folk a week into the summer, and by the time Rohrwasser was kicking regularly he was badly inaccurate. He was waived at the end of camp, spent the entire 2020 season on the practice squad, signed a reserve/future deal in January, and was waived for good in March 2021 without ever kicking in a regular-season game. He never appeared in the NFL again.
This is the cautionary tale of drafting a specialist on leg strength. The evaluation was not wrong about the talent in the leg, and the walk-off tape was real, but a fifth-round pick on a kicker leaves no margin for a slow camp. Bass went 29 picks later and became a decade-long starter in Buffalo; Blankenship went undrafted and kicked immediately in Indianapolis. Rohrwasser is the rare draft pick whose entire NFL career fits on a practice-squad line.