Cleveland Browns Free Agent Review: K Cody Parkey

Next up on our 2021 review of the Browns’ unrestricted free agents is K Cody Parkey.

Photo by Nic Antaya/Getty Images

How and When He Joined the Browns: Since 2014, Parkey has been with a handful of teams, but this was actually his second stint with the Browns. In both cases, he was a replacement kicker who became the primary kicker for most of the season — in 2016, it was due to an injury to Patrick Murray. In 2020, it was after Austin Seibert was terrible in Week 1, and Parkey was promoted from the practice squad.

Productivity Level Last Season: Parkey was 19-of-22 on field goals during the regular season, and 43-of-47 on extra points. In the postseason, he was 3-of-3 on field goals and 8-of-8 on extra points.

Parkey was reliable for most of the season, but came under scrutiny down the stretch in December when he missed an extra point in three consecutive games. Two of those games ended up being losses — to the Ravens and the Jets — and he had also missed a field goal against Baltimore. He seemed to have lost some of his confidence, and heading into Week 17, that’s not an ideal situation for your kicker when the team is trying to secure a playoff spot. He pulled it together, though, to finish two games against Pittsburgh and against the Chiefs with perfect stats.

Why Keeping Him Could Make Sense: Despite his end-of-the-season slump, Parkey had a solid year for the Browns, and has done well in two stints with the club. He’s not the best kicker in the NFL, but he’s average and would be better than having to start from square one again.

What the Browns Should Do: Parkey is actually 8-of-10 in his career from beyond 50 yards. However, in two seasons with the Browns, he only has one attempt from beyond 50 yards. He is not known for his distance, and Cleveland even had Jamie Gillan attempt a 60+ yard field goal attempt when they wanted to try it out of desperation this season. Parkey’s distance on kickoffs was a bit below average too.

Parkey is a player who the Browns can sign for the veteran minimum, and plan to either have him as their kicker again, or see if they get lucky with whoever they bring in to compete with him.

Let us know below whether or not the team should try to re-sign Cody Parkey.