Falcons release struggling K Elam

By PAUL NEWBERRY
AP Sports Writer

ATLANTA — Jason Elam figured he was down to his last miss.

He was right.

The Atlanta Falcons released the 17-year veteran on Tuesday,
having finally run out of patience with a kicker who had been
one of the NFL’s most accurate but struggled through a
mystifying slump this season.

Elam was just 8 of 15 on field goal attempts from at least 30
yards, a success rate that was simply unacceptable – especially
for a team contending in the NFC playoff race.

“To be honest with you, when I walked off the field after the
last three games, I thought that was it,” Elam told The
Associated Press when reached on his cell phone. “I’ve always
been able to kick myself out of these things, but it just wasn’t
happening for me. It was a bad November.”

It also was an unceremonious ending for a 39-year-old kicker who
is tied for the longest field goal in NFL history (63 yards),
made more than 81 percent of his career attempts, and earned
three Pro Bowl appearances during a 15-season tenure with the
Denver Broncos, helping them win back-to-back Super Bowls in the
1990s.

Elam signed with the Falcons last year, returning to the area
where he grew up, and played a big role in Atlanta’s surprising
run to the playoffs. He made 29 of 31 field goals and all 42 of
his extra-point attempts.

But something went wrong this season, and it was apparent right
from the start. Elam struggled in the preseason, missed an extra
point in the regular-season opener and botched crucial kicks in
losses to Carolina and the New York Giants.

“This is not my dream ending, but I feel like it was a pretty
good dream career,” he said. “I never anticipated it lasting
this long. I wish it was different circumstances that I was
going out. But I gave them everything I’ve got. I can look
myself in the mirror and feel good.”

The Falcons (6-5) insisted that one miss didn’t cost Elam his
job. But the final straw came Sunday, when he was wide left on a
43-yarder with 6 1/2 minutes left in the fourth quarter that
might have led to another Atlanta loss.

The Falcons rallied, throwing a fourth-down touchdown pass with
23 seconds remaining to pull out a 20-17 victory over the woeful
Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but they couldn’t afford to cut it so
close again, not with vital games coming up against Philadelphia
and unbeaten New Orleans.

“He hit some, but unfortunately he missed some others,” Falcons
general manager Thomas Dimitroff told the AP. “We felt like we
needed to make a move.”

Atlanta signed Matt Bryant, who has kicked with four NFL teams,
most recently spending four seasons with the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers. He had been playing with Florida of the fledgling
United Football League and was brought in for a tryout Tuesday,
four days after his team lost in the inaugural UFL championship
game.

“Matt came in and kicked very well at our indoor facility,”
Dimitroff said. “He stroked it well, he had good pop and he
showed some accuracy.”

Bryant has the third-longest field goal in NFL history, a
62-yarder in 2006, and he’s also endured personal tragedy: his
3-month-old son Matthew Tryson, died unexpectedly in 2008. One
day after the funeral, Bryant returned to kicked three goals in
Tampa Bay’s victory over the Green Bay Packers.

“You know he’s strong-willed, given what he’s gone through in
his background,” Dimitroff said.

Elam wasn’t the only member of the field-goal unit to lose his
job. Long snapper Bryan Pittman also was cut, replaced by Joe
Zelenka.

While Elam said he’ll take a few days to decide on whether he
wants to pursue a job with another team, he sure sounded as
though he’s ready to call it a career.

“I just want to be remembered as a consistent kicker,” he said.
“That’s what I prided myself on. It wasn’t the 63-yarder. I
didn’t want to be known just for hitting the longest field
goal.”

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