Report: Wil Lutz Traded to Broncos From Saints; Reunites with Sean Payton

The Denver Broncos agreed to acquire veteran kicker Wil Lutz in a trade with the New Orleans Saints prior to the deadline for NFL rosters to be cut down from 90 players to 53 on Tuesday, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport.

Per Mike Klis of 9NEWS, the Saints will receive a 2024 seventh-round pick in the deal.

Lutz, 29, has spent his entire six-year NFL career in New Orleans, earning Pro Bowl honors in 2019.

New Broncos head coach Sean Payton was previously Lutz's head coach with the Saints from 2016 through 2021.

In 97 career regular-season games, Lutz has converted 84.6 percent of his field goal attempts and 97.6 percent of his extra point attempts. He ranks 22nd in NFL history in field goal efficiency among qualified players.

Lutz went undrafted out of Georgia State in 2016, but he quickly caught on with the Saints and made 86.6 percent of his field goals over his first five seasons.

That included going 28-of-30 on field goals in 2018 and 32-of-36 in 2019 en route to his first and only Pro Bowl nod.

Lutz missed the entire 2021 season due to a core muscle injury, and upon returning in 2022, he struggled to his worst statistical season.

He went just 23-for-31 (74.2 percent) on field goal tries, although he did convert all 33 of his extra-point attempts.

New Orleans brought in Blake Grupe, a 24-year-old rookie out of Notre Dame, to compete with Lutz in training camp, and he impressed in preseason action, making five of his six field goal attempts with a long of 50 yards.

The Broncos spent the offseason searching for answers at kicker after releasing veteran Brandon McManus, who had been their kicker for the past nine seasons.

McManus signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Broncos signed Brett Maher and Elliott Fry to compete for the opportunity to replace him.

Fry was released earlier this month after going 1-for-2 on field goals in his only preseason appearance, while Maher went 4-for-6 in three preseason contests.

Ironically, Maher spent half of the 2021 season as the Saints' kicker while Lutz was out before going back to the Dallas Cowboys when Lutz returned last season.

Now, Lutz may be in line to succeed Maher as a team's kicker for the second consecutive campaign.