Chad
Ryland.
Chad
Ryland.
Maryland· 6'0"· 190 lb
"A specialist drafted on raw leg speed rather than a clean percentage, taken with a trade-up that bet an NFL operation could turn big-leg tape into reliable Sunday points."Pre-draft read
Ryland is a placekicker and kickoff specialist who wins with leg speed rather than a long, muscled swing. His plant is quiet, the strike is compact, and the ball leaves flat and fast, which keeps 50-yard attempts on line instead of dying at the crossbar. His operation time is quick and repeatable, so he was trusted on tight-window kicks in two conferences.
The secondary trait is kickoff value: he hit nearly 70 percent touchbacks in his final college season, so a team gets the field-position piece for free. Where the profile splits is consistency of contact. On clean strikes he is a genuine 55-plus threat; when the plant drifts, the same flat ball turns into a hook. The signature is raw leg talent looking for a repeatable operation.
Any offense that wants a genuine 55-plus range threat and a kickoff man who ends possessions in the end zone, ideally in a stable operation with a veteran holder and long snapper.
Year 1: the outright starting kicker, not a camp-competition body, with the roster patience to absorb an early miss. Ceiling: a long-tenured starter whose range lets a coordinator call fourth downs from the opponent 38.
A team that drafts him high, installs him as a rookie with no veteran on the roster, and treats a single bad month as the verdict, which is precisely the situation that ended his New England run.
His kickoff touchback rate is a real roster tiebreaker on teams that carry a returner-heavy coverage unit.
Chad Ryland College Highlights, Maryland, K
Pre-draft reel of the Maryland season that produced All-Big Ten honors.
Maryland kicker Chad Ryland drills 53 yard field goal vs Michigan
The long make against Michigan that showcased his range in a Big Ten setting.
Chad Ryland nails game-winning kick for the Cardinals
The Arizona rebound: a game-winner after his release from New England.
Ryland came out as a five-year specialist with an uncommon resume: four seasons kicking at Eastern Michigan, then a transfer year at Maryland that put him in front of Big Ten defenses and Big Ten scouts. He was a placekicker and kickoff man, never a punter, and his identity was leg strength that showed up on tape rather than in a workout setting.
The production backed it. He was second-team All-MAC in 2020 and 2021, then second-team All-Big Ten in 2022 after going 19 of 23 on field goals with 39 of 40 extra points at Maryland, including makes from beyond 50 and 51 touchbacks on 73 kickoffs. The flag was the same one that follows most kicking prospects: a career mark in the high 70s rather than the high 80s, with misses that clustered in the 40-to-49 range where NFL jobs are decided.
Maryland's pro day was where the leg closed the deal, and he was the second kicker off the board in 2023. New England did not just take him at 112, they traded up with the Jets to get him, spending picks 120 and 184 to move for the highest-drafted specialist of the Belichick era. The price told you how much the staff believed in the leg.
- 01
Leg strength
the ball comes off flat and fast, giving him real range beyond 50 and a comfortable margin on anything inside 45.
- 02
Kickoff value
51 touchbacks on 73 kickoffs in his final college season, so he delivers hidden field position on top of the scoring job.
- 03
Power-five proof
his transfer year at Maryland produced second-team All-Big Ten honors against the schedule NFL evaluators trust most.
- 04
Quick operation
a compact swing and a quiet plant keep the timing tight, which matters on the low, rushed kicks that get blocked.
- 05
Volume of reps
five seasons and 97 career attempts across two programs, an unusually deep body of live work for a drafted kicker.
- 01
Career accuracy
75 of 97 for his college career sits in the high 70s, below the conversion rate NFL teams demand from a drafted specialist.
- 02
Mid-range misses
his lapses clustered in the 40-to-49 band, exactly the distance that decides whether a kicker keeps a job.
- 03
Plant inconsistency
when the plant foot drifts, the flat trajectory becomes a hook, and the miss pattern repeats rather than randomizes.
- 04
Draft-capital pressure
being taken on Day 3 with a trade-up meant no runway, and the profile needed immediate results to survive it.
| Yr | Team | G | FGM | FGA | FG% | XPM | XPA | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Eastern Michigan | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2019 | Eastern Michigan | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2020 | Eastern Michigan | 6 | 11 | 13 | — | 18 | 19 | — |
| 2021 | Eastern Michigan | 13 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2022 | Maryland | 13 | 19 | 23 | — | 39 | 40 | — |
| Career | — | 57 | 75 | 97 | 77.3 | 180 | 185 | — |
Place-kicking numbers verified against cfbstats season pages for 2020 and 2022 and Maryland releases; 2018, 2019 and 2021 season splits are not published in the sources checked and are left null rather than zero-filled, so the seasons listed do not sum to the career line. Career totals come from the aggregated Sports Reference career page (75 of 97 field goals, 180 of 185 extra points, 57 games). He never punted.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A kicker who struggles in his first stop, lands somewhere stable and settles in as a solid multi-year starter.
The outcome if the big leg ever pairs with elite accuracy: a range weapon who changes how an offense plays fourth down.
Drafted on leg talent, undone by percentage, and out of the job before the rookie contract ends.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
New England handed him the job as a rookie and the results were bad: 16 of 25 on field goals, 64 percent, with 24 of 25 extra points across 17 games. He hit a 56-yarder and a game-winner in Denver, but the misses were frequent enough that the trade-up became a talking point. The Patriots brought in Joey Slye for 2024, Slye won the camp outright, and Ryland was released in the cut to 53. He was not claimed. He signed to Arizona's practice squad in October, got elevated when Matt Prater went down, and never gave the job back, finishing 2024 at 28 of 32, 87.5 percent, including 4 for 4 from 50-plus. In 2025 he kicked all 17 games for the Cardinals at 25 of 33 with a perfect 36 of 36 on extra points and a long of 57. Arizona added Joshua Karty as competition in December 2025, then released him in June 2026, and Ryland entered the 2026 season on a one-year deal as the clear starter.
In hindsight the evaluation of the leg was right and the price was wrong. Ryland is an NFL kicker, which most Day 3 specialists are not, and the Arizona body of work proves the trait translated. But New England paid a trade-up for a rookie who needed a soft landing and got the harshest one available, then lost him for nothing. The player recovered; the pick did not.