SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Jason Myers was hardly recruited in high school. He only made 63% of his kicks during his time at Marist. No NFL teams even thought about giving him a shot.
13 years, two leagues, five franchises, a job parking cars and a couple of NFL records later, Myers is preparing to kick in football’s biggest stage: the Super Bowl.
Though Marist often celebrates his heritage, Myers is essentially as self-made as a professional can be. He kicked at Marist from 2009-12, but his statistics never screamed “NFL talent.” He was recognized as an All-PFL Honorable Mention three times, but his longest made field goal was only 49 yards, then a Marist record. Myers was even the Red Foxes’ primary punter as a senior, where his 39 yards per punt ranked as the fourth highest in program history.
“They just called out of the blue my senior year,” Myers said. “Honestly, I had no idea where Marist was.”
As a small school in the Pioneer Football League, Marist did not have the infrastructure in place for Myers to blossom. They had no special teams coordinator; outside of a few kicking lessons while he was at Mater Dei Catholic High School in Chula Vista, CA, he was self-taught. For being a relatively raw product, Myers did well for himself. He left Marist with the most placekicking points (159), a mark that has since been eclipsed twice.
Myers started his professional career in the Arena Football League, playing the 2014 season with the San Jose SaberCats and Arizona Rattlers. Similar to Marist, he didn’t seek the AFL out; he got a call and gave it a shot. There, he played in front of crowds that rarely reached 10,000. Next Sunday, some 70,000 fans will enter Levi Stadium, and more than 100 million will watch from home.
The AFL is often a place where football careers, more or less, go to die. Players rarely successfully use it as a stepping stone to the NFL, but Myers wasn’t fazed by the long odds. Hell, he was never supposed to even make it that far.
Myers’ first love was soccer; he played it all the way through high school, and even helped Mater Dei Catholic win the state championship during his senior year, where he was also named the San Diego Division IV CIF Player of the Year.
But in San Diego, soccer was a winter sport. As a freshman in high school, Myers debated running cross country during the fall to help stay in shape, but before the football season, his friend and kicker on the team, Matt Martinez, broke his leg. Myers, who had always enjoyed watching and following football but never enough to give it a shot, finally did.
“I was in love with soccer at the time,” Myers said in a 2023 interview with Seattle Sports.
Myers ended up spending four years on Mater Dei Catholic’s varsity football team, while slowly pulling back from soccer. He watched videos to learn kicking techniques and accrued a slew of awards: South Bay Kicker of the Year and South Bay First Team Offense as a junior, league-wide recognition, then Mesa Kicker of the Year and First Team Offense as a senior, which are regional awards.
After the AFL season, Myers decided to invest in himself. He began taking kicking lessons with Michael Husted, a nine-year NFL veteran who turned to coaching after his kicking career ended. For six months, Myers kicked with Husted in the morning, then worked as a valet at night to help fund his seminars.
“I was always kind of searching for help with technique. [Husted] was the main person that put me in front of scouts.”
Jason Myers
“I was always kind of searching for help with technique, Myers said. “He was the main person that put me in front of scouts.”
Husted invited Myers to a free agent combine during the following year’s Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, and with a newfound kicking technique, Myers stood out from the rest of the pack. The Jacksonville Jaguars brought him in during rookie camp, and he outperformed Derek Dimke, a kicker from the University of Illinois, earning himself a roster spot for training camp and the preseason.
Still, Josh Scobee stood in his way. Scobee had been Jacksonville’s kicker for the past 11 years, but thanks to a strong summer and effective preseason, he earned the Jaguars trust; they traded Scobee to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Almost two and a half years after graduating from Marist, Myers made his NFL debut against the Carolina Panthers. He struggled. Badly. Myers missed an extra point and a 44-yarder, but did knock in a 22-yard chip shot.
To his credit, he bounced back. A week later, he hit a 28-yard kick as time expired to give the Jaguars a 23-20 victory over the Miami Dolphins. Myers spent two and a half years in Jacksonville, but after six games in 2017, he got cut – Myers had shanked three big kicks in the previous three weeks. He had only hit 81% of his kicks as a Jaguar.
He went unclaimed the rest of the season, but got a tryout with the Seattle Seahawks, where longtime Oakland Raiders kicker Sebastian Janikowski beat him out for the job. Seattle released Myers, and one day later, the New York Jets signed him.
Less than 75 miles from Tenney Stadium, Myers completely turned his career around at MetLife Stadium, where he became one of the league’s top kickers.
Myers went to the Pro Bowl in 2018, and even got voted the best kicker in the American Football Conference (AFC). In Week 7, he went 7/7 on field goal attempts to earn the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week award.
At season’s end, he was a free agent. This time around, he wouldn’t have to scratch and claw for a roster spot; he was one of the top kickers on the market. The Seahawks, who cut him less than a year earlier, signed him to a four-year, $15.45 million contract.
He undoubtedly lived up to his first contract in Seattle. In 2020, Myers was nearly perfect; he missed four extra points, and that was it. He went 24/24 on field goals, including a 61-yarder (the longest of his career, and in the NFL that year), to become one of only nine players in NFL history to make 100% of their kicks in a season (minimum 20 attempts).
In 2022, earned his second career Pro Bowl nod, this time leading the NFL in kicking points for the first time in his career with 143; the Seahawks reupped his deal that offseason, giving him a four-year extension worth $21.1 million.
2025 has been a culmination of a wonderful seven seasons with the Seahawks so far. With a 34-yard make in its Week 10 win over the Arizona Cardinals, he officially became Seattle’s all-time leading scorer. In the Seahawks first matchup against Arizona in Week 4, Myers drilled a 52-yard field goal as time expired.
It wasn’t even his most notable game-winner of the season. In Week 15, after recently-unretired Phillip Rivers led the Colts on a drive to take the lead with 47 seconds left, Myers stepped into a 56-yarder, winning the game for the Seahawks. It was his sixth made field goal of the day; Seattle won 18-16 – every point of theirs came from the right foot of Myers.
Myers has been perfect thus far on extra point (9/9) and field goal attempts (3/3) in the playoffs, as the Seahawks have overpowered their opponents with a blistering offense; they’ve scored 72 points in their two playoff games, both wins against divisional opponents.
As simple and cliché as it sounds, Myers is just focused on doing his job; whether that requires him to knock in a few extra points and be conservative on his kickoffs, or take over the game as he did against Indianapolis. He’s detail-oriented and routine-oriented, helping him stay grounded and effectively fulfill his role.
“He’s very dialed in on the details,” said Michael Dickson, a second-team All-Pro punter and Myers holder on field goal and extra point tries. “That’s why he’s good at what he does. He’s like a robot.”
It hasn’t been a lifetime of kicking footballs for Myers, like some other kickers. It’s been a steady but grueling grind for Myers since graduating from Marist, one that required him to grow as a kicker on the fly.
This week is the pinnacle, the consummation of over a decade of professional ups and downs. He’s no longer the nervous freshman from Chula Vista, lining up for a do-or-die game-winning kick against Georgetown with five seconds left at Tenney Stadium. If he finds himself in the same situation on Sunday, he won’t be nearly as nervous as he was back in that 2009 game.
“I’ve done so much practice with my mental side, I definitely know more about what I’m doing with my body now,” Myers said.
For what it’s worth, Myers nailed that kick against the Hoyas, a 37-yarder that gave the Red Foxes a 23-21 victory. The 18-year old was ready for the moment. The 34-year-old is built for it.
Edited and photo provided by Jaylen Rizzo
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