Peter King says he would not be surprised if Sean Payton and the Broncos show interest in Saints kicker Will Lutz

In his weekly Football Morning in America, NBC Sports’ Peter King suggested that Sean Payton and the Broncos could show interest in Saints kicker Will Lutz. The Saints are currently having a kicking competition between veteran Will Lutz and undrafted rookie kicker Blake Grupe, and King believes the Broncos will show interest in Payton’s former kicker if he loses the kicking competition.

He states that the Saints may be able to trade the loser of their kicking battle for a sixth-round pick before the roster cutdown period. (The Broncos currently do not have a 2024 sixth-round selection)

“GM Mickey Loomis may be able to trade the loser of Wil Lutz/Blake Grupe (free agent, Notre Dame) for a sixth-round pick just before roster cutdown. Wouldn’t be surprised to see Sean Payton show interest in Lutz in Denver”

NOLA.com’s Jeff Duncan also tweeted today that he has heard similar stuff about Will Lutz and the Broncos. He later tweeted that he believes the Saints will lean towards keeping the experienced kicker instead, but could be swayed if they can get a late-round draft pick in return.

Will Lutz is a 29-year-old kicker who has kicked for the New Orleans Saints since 2016 and spent all but one of those seasons with now Broncos head coach, Sean Payton. During his career, Lutz has made 84.6% of his field goal attempts and has a career-long kick of 60 yards. As for extra points, Lutz has attempted 293 extra points during his career and has made 286 of his extra point attempts. That means he has only missed seven career extra points but has only missed three of those attempts since 2018. So, he has been a very consistent and reliable kicker throughout his career.

However, he is coming off a career worse year when it comes to field goal percentage. Last season, Lutz made 74.2% of his kicks which was a career low for him, and his first season below 80% in field goal percentage. He was coming off a 2021 season where he missed the entire season due to an abdomen injury that resulted in a core-muscle surgery and ended up costing him the entire 2021 season.

Now, Lutz is in a kicking battle with impressive looking undrafted rookie Blake Grupe and could be available in a trade. The Broncos currently have veteran kicker Brett Maher on the roster who is coming a preseason game where he made both of his field goal attempts and both of his extra point attempts. He was one of the better kickers last season as well, but a terrible performance in the wild card has clearly affected his confidence. If those yips continue, could we see Payton acquire his former longtime kicker with the Saints? He has not been shy about adding former Saints players so it would not be a surprise if he did.