After playing through the worst season in his career, kicker Mike Nugent has been released from the Cincinnati Bengals. So, for the remainder of the season, the Bengals will be playing newly signed starter Randy Bullock.
As noted by NBC Sports, the Bengals missed a total of six points because of Nugent's poor performance this season. With his 23 out of 29 record, Nugent finished the season with an extra point rate of only 79.3, which is the lowest percentage for a kicker in the history of the NFL.
The problem with Nugent's performance was already addressed by the Bengals last month. As noted by ESPN, the team took advantage of their bye week to bring in new kickers but coach Marvin Lewis still decided to stick with Nugent.
"It's easy for everybody to say make that change," he said last month. "But... when that change doesn't work out, what do you do? I'm way more comfortable with helping Mike get corrected and through this and him having confidence that we expect from him and that we really have in him."
After reaching the losing record of 5-7-1, it seems the Cincinnati front office has finally had enough of the kicker's poor performance. Earlier this week, the team finally decided to release him. Lewis noted that the decision to cut Nugent was for the benefit of the entire team.
"Mike is a tremendous teammate and has been an integral part of the Bengals for seven seasons," he said according to Yahoo! Sports. "This was a difficult decision, but one we felt was in the best interest of the football team moving forward."
Shortly after the Bengals released Nugent, the team immediately claimed Bullock, who was also waived by the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday. Bullock was initially brought in as the team's starter due to Chris Boswell's injury. But with Boswell back on the field, the Steelers felt that they no longer needed an extra kicker in their roster.
It is not yet clear where Nugent will end up next but with teams now heading into the playoffs, there's a chance that he might not be able to play again for the remainder of the year.
As for the Bengals, the team and their new kicker will be heading into their Week 15 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, a team that's currently holding down one of the top spots in the AFC division.
