The Washington Commanders are now on to their eighth kicker of the Dan Quinn era.
Monday, a day after Matt Gay missed two field goals in a narrow loss to the Miami Dolphins in Madrid, the team released him and signed Jake Moody off the Chicago Bears’ practice squad, per league sources.
Gay missed a 51-yard attempt in the second quarter against the Dolphins, then missed a 56-yarder with 15 seconds remaining in regulation that would’ve sealed a victory for Washington. Instead, the Dolphins won on a 29-yard field goal in overtime by Riley Patterson, who was with Washington during training camp in 2024.
Gay signed a one-year, $4.25 million deal with the Commanders in the offseason with the hope he would provide a stronger leg and be their solution to a kicking carousel as of late. And he was — on kickoffs. But he was 13-of-19 on field goals, struggling particularly from 50 yards and out (4-of-9).
Moody was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the third round of the 2023 draft when Adam Peters, now the Commanders’ general manager, was their assistant GM.
Moody is 54 of 71 in overall field goals in his career, including 6 of 12 from 50 yards out.
The Niners waived Moody after he missed two field goals — one from 27 yards and another from 36 yards — in the team’s season opener against the Seattle Seahawks.
He signed to the Bears’ practice squad and was elevated for their Monday night game against the Commanders in Washington. He made four of five field goal attempts, including a 38-yarder as time expired to give the Bears a 25-24 win.
He’s the eighth kicker to sign to Washington’s roster and their ninth overall, including Matthew Wright’s emergency stint in Week 8 when Gay was dealing with a back injury.
The Commanders first signed Brandon McManus to a three-year deal in March 2024 but released him shortly after he was accused of sexual assault during his previous season with the Jacksonville Jaguars. (He denied the allegations and did not face any punishment from the NFL.) Washington then tried out Ramiz Ahmed and Patterson during training camp that year, only to trade for Cade York just before the season opener. He went 0 for 2 in the Commanders’ Week 1 loss at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that season and was replaced by Austin Seibert, who was later replaced by Zane Gonzalez during the season.
Gonzalez hit a 37-yard field goal in the final seconds of the Commanders’ playoff game against the Bucs to give Washington its first postseason win in nearly a decade. He re-signed in March on a one-year contract worth the veteran minimum of $1.17 million, but the team later turned to Gay.
Now, the Commanders will try again with Moody.