3 difficult roster decisions Saints must make before Week 1

Does Wil Lutz actually get cut?

Longtime Saints kicker Wil Lutz might actually have some competition this summer. New Orleans brought in undrafted free agent kicker Blake Grupe out of Notre Dame to push him during training camp, and for good reason.

Last year, Lutz made just 23 of 31 field goal attempts, which put him at just over 74 percent on the year. And, it wasn't like all of his misses were tough kicks. Lutz missed two between 30-39 yards while missing an alarming four between 40-49 yards.

It wasn't just last year that should concern Saints fans, though. Lutz has been on a downward trend for a while. Each of the last three seasons have been worse than the previous in terms of his success rate on field goal attempts. From 93.3 percent in 2018, to 88.9 percent in 2019, then 82.1 percent in 2020. Lutz missed all of 2021 with an abdomen injury, and then followed it up by going just 74.2 percent on kicks in 2022.

Grupe comes in anything but a savior, though, as he finished going 14 of 19 last year for the Irish. Funny enough, Grupe's career kicking percentage sits at 74.3, which is just 0.1 percent better than what Lutz did last season.