Report: Saints to sign veteran kicker Connor Barth

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the New Orleans Saints are bringing in veteran kicker Connor Barth.

Connor Barth was one of 44 players to try out during the team’s three-day rookie minicamp last weekend, and it was widely thought that he’d get a look following the Josh Scobee release. For the moment, it appears that Barth will battle returning kicker Kai Forbath for the Saints kicker duties.

Barth, who turned 30 in April, went 23-for-28 (82.1 percent) with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last season. Barth missed one extra point in 12 games, and had 32 total touchbacks.

When you compare that to Forbath, who kicked two game-winning field goals over the New York Giants and Atlanta Falcons, it becomes clear that Barth provides a bit more upside. Forbath went 10-for-15 last year (69 percent), missing four field goals in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. His other miss was while with the Washington Redskins. He had 22 touchbacks in 11 games played.

Connor Barth got the boot after the Bucs traded up in the second round of the NFL Draft to nab Florida State’s Roberto Aguayo.

A total of 10 different kickers have come through the Saints organization on their active roster from 2006-2015, and that’s not counting the changes made when going back to players like John Carney and Garrett Hartley. That’s also not counting battles that had the likes of Dustin Hopkins and Derek Dimke.

It gets way worse for the black and gold, as the players brought in weren’t so efficient at kicking. The Saints have a collective accuracy of 79.3 percent in 10 seasons (214-for-270). Needless to say, this is a real sore spot for the Saints.