When it comes to the Broncos’ kicking situation, the game’s afoot

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Elliott Fry has a contract. Randy Bullock does not. He’s working on a tryout basis this week.

But there really isn’t much difference in the two kickers’ statuses as they work at Broncos minicamp this week. The Broncos could cut Fry with no dead-money charge to their salary cap. So, in effect, both stand on relatively equal terms – although a player with Bullock’s experience would carry at least a $1.165 million salary if he played the entire 2023 season. Fry, meanwhile, is set to make $415,000 less on his league-minimum contract if he wins the job.

That’s the business part of it.

But what truly matters is how they kick. And the competition is relatively easy to gauge.

“That’s what’s kind of cool about that spot,” Broncos special-teams coordinator Ben Kotwica said. “Some positions can be ambiguous. Maybe it’s a receiver position or the offensive line, especially given the parameters that we have.

“That job (kicker) is pretty straightforward. The ball either goes through or it doesn’t.”

A STUDY IN CONTRASTS

In terms of physical stature only, Fry is a wisp of a man. A soccer player growing up, Fry would look quite in place at training for the Colorado Rapids, Colorado Springs Switchbacks or Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC. But with 170 pounds on a 6-foot frame, he cuts a distinct profile among the goliaths and leviathans who engage in the ferocious trench combat of pro football.

Bullock is of a different build. He’s stout. (“The camera loves stoutness,” as Cosmo Kramer once told George Costanza.) Even when wearing compression pants, it’s obvious that Bullock doesn’t miss a leg day. And it stacks up to strength.

What Fry generates through torque, Bullock creates with muscle.

Thwack, thwack, thwack. For both, the kicks fly through the air.

“We had a handful of kicks, and all of them were made,” Kotwica said. “Elliott made all his, and Randy made all his. We’ll see how it shakes out. Again, it’s a work in progress, but I’m excited about that opportunity for those guys.”

For Bullock, such an opportunity would be nothing new. Last year, the Tennessee Titans became his seventh team in 10 seasons. But he cycled through five of those teams from 2013-16. Late in 2016, the Bengals claimed him off waivers to become team No. 5, and he remained in Cincinnati for the four seasons that followed. An offseason hitch with Detroit in 2021 followed before two years with the Titans.

Bullock hit 85 percent of his field-goal attempts last year. He drilled all 28 of his extra-point tries. On all kicks from inside 40 yards — PATs and field goals — he was metronomic: 38-of-38.

He’s been “the man.” In each of his last nine seasons, he reached the 80-percent benchmark in field-goal success rate. The large sample size and experience favors Bullock.

“He’s over an 83 percent kicker during his time,” Kotwica said. “He looked good [Wednesday]. Experience can help you, and … we’ll see how it shakes out moving forward.”

Fry has never been “the man” for an NFL team at kicker. He has been a fill-in. The closest he came was four years ago, when he found himself locked in a competition with Eddy Piñiero with the Chicago Bears. Piñiero won that battle — then smacked a 53-yard field goal through the south Empower Field at Mile High uprights weeks later to give the Bears a 16-14 win over the Broncos, preventing Vic Fangio from winning his head-coaching debut against his previous employer.

And while the business booted Piñiero into the metaphorical upright thereafter, he now has gainful employment as the Carolina Panthers’ sole kicker. Four teams cut Piñiero before he found a landing spot in Charlotte. Fry, meanwhile, is now on NFL team No. 11.

He hopes that wheel stops spinning in Denver.

BOTH STATED THEIR CASE

Wednesday was better than Tuesday.

“We had a handful of kicks, and all of them were made,” Kotwica said of their work during the second day of mandatory minicamp. “Elliott made all his, and Randy made all his.

“… Again, it’s a work in progress, but I’m excited about that opportunity for those guys.”

Tuesday, inside the Pat Bowlen Fieldhouse, it was a tad different. And not just because each of them attempted a 9-yard, straight-on placekick in tribute to the late Ring of Famer Jim Turner, who died at the age of 82.

“We looked a little better kicking straight on than we did with the soccer-style attempts,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said of their Tuesday work.

He watched intently. So did Kotwica, assistant head coach Mike Westhoff and special-teams assistant Chris Banjo.

They have a decision to make. And while Bullock is the competition on hand this week, effectively, the battle for the job includes kickers who don’t win gigs with other teams, along with a stable of proven veterans still on the market such as Robbie Gould, Mason Crosby and Ryan Succop.

The charting and competition has only just begun.

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