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The Arizona Cardinals will end their first week of OTAs on Thursday and the coaches get their first competitive looks at their players. While there is competition for nearly every position and roster spot, one player that really will have to work is kicker Jay Feely.
The veteran re-signed with the team on a contract that didn't even pay him a signing bonus. To get his bonus, he will have to be on the roster Week 1 of the regular season.
He does not enter the offseason as the clear starter.
He welcomes the competition and throughout his career he has shown that he thrives on competition.
However, with three kickers on the offseason roster, Arizona is taking a long and hard look at other guys.
One guy to watch, according to reporter Mike Jurecki, is undrafted rookie Chandler Catanzaro. Catanzaro is 6-3, 220 and played for Clemson. According to Jurecki, he "has a strong leg" and "will provide good competition for Feely."
There has been one question about Catanzaro -- why didn't he do kickoffs at Clemson? That is typically a sign of a weaker leg, which would dispute Jurecki's comment. After all, in Feely, the team already has a kicker who does not get good depth on his kickoffs.
Jurecki explains in another tweet, something of which I was unaware. Clemson used their All-American punter (a 6-6, 230 pound guy with a stronger leg than Catanzaro) on kickoffs.
If this proves to be true and he is reliable for field goals (accuracy and reliability prove to be more important traits for field goal kicking than leg strength), Feely might find himself out of a job.
This will be yet another positional battle to watch in training camp.