Lawrence Tynes has kicked the Giants into two Super Bowls and his NFC Championship Game overtime field goals on the frozen ground at Lambeau Field and the soft slop of Candlestick Park are part of franchise lore.
Tynes, though, is set to become an unrestricted free agent and the Giants might opt to get younger at kicker. They took a step in that direction yesterday, signing former Cowboys kicker David Buehler.
Buehler was with the Cowboys from 2009-2011 and was primarily known as a kickoff specialist.
The Giants now have three kickers on their roster: Tynes, Buehler and Jake Rogers, who has been in camps with the Saints and Buccaneers.
Tynes has spent the last six years with the Giants and just finished a five-year, $7 million contract. The Giants won’t want to shell out big bucks for a kicker this time around.
Tynes turns 35 in May and is the oldest player on the team. He is coming off a strong season, hitting 33 of his 39 field-goal attempts, but he slumped down the stretch. Still, he’s popular and reliable and his field goals in two classic NFC title games won’t soon be forgotten.
Buehler turned 26 last week and has a big leg. He led the NFL with 29 touchbacks as a rookie in 2009 and in three seasons with the Cowboys has 60 touchbacks on 175 kickoffs, a 34.3 percentage. In 2010, the Cowboys gave him the full-time kicker job and he made 24 of 32 field-goal attempts (75 percent).
In 2011, he had nine touchbacks on 18 kickoffs before landing on injured reserve with a torn adductor muscle and underwent surgery to repair a torn hip labrum. He did not kick in the NFL in 2012. He was originally a hot prospect. The Cowboys took him out of USC in the fifth round of the 2009 NFL Draft.
Tynes would like to return to the Giants and Buehler certainly provides insurance in case the price-tag gets too high in free agency.