The Buffalo Bills signed kicker Stephen Hauschka to a two-year contract extension on Wednesday.
Even though the Buffalo Bills front office will need to cut their roster in half by week’s end, this didn’t stop them from extending the team’s starting kicker, Stephen Hauschka, to a two-year contract extension.
The 34-year old is entering his 13th season in the league and his third with the Buffalo Bills. He joined the Bills in 2017 as a free agent, signing a three-year deal worth $8.85 million. This extension will now keep him in Buffalo through the 2021 season.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the extension is worth $8 million over the two years.
It’s a two-year, $8 million extension, per source. https://t.co/jeLjkCStVX
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 28, 2019
Hauschka has been a reliable kicker for the Buffalo Bills connecting on 84% of his field goal attempts the past two seasons. He has also only missed one extra point in 45 tries over that span.
However, questions were starting to arise about how long Hauschka can still perform at this level, especially with his performance this preseason. He has only made two of four field goal attempts so far, missing on a 34-yard attempt against the Colts and a 48-yard attempt against the Panthers.
The Bills are the seventh NFL team that Hauschka has played for during his NFL career, which started with the Minnesota Vikings in 2008. However, he was released prior to that season but was claimed by the Baltimore Ravens, playing eight games for them.
He hasn’t spent his entire time in the NFL though and had a stop in the UFL in 2010 as a member of the Las Vegas Locomotive, when he won the UFL Championship. He also won a Super Bowl ring with the Seattle Seahawks in 2016, during a six year stretch with the team.
A case could be made that Hauschka was one of the key players the Buffalo Bills had to re-sign after this season, along with defensive end Shaq Lawson. Now that he is under contract, the front office will have one less thing they need to address next offseason.