Ben Sauls got the first crack with the starters, and he made it count.
On the opening day of Giants training camp, Sauls handled the first-team field goals and went 4-for-5, according to Giants.com’s practice report. Dominic Zvada, who had looked like the favorite coming out of the spring, worked with the second unit and finished 3-for-5. Sauls also nailed the first-team kick in the closing two-minute period and had a 61-yard try drift just wide right, with plenty of leg behind it.
That was a sharp turn from where things stood a month ago. Zvada had spent the spring building what looked like a commanding lead, and his minicamp performance made the rookie feel like the clear front-runner.
At mandatory minicamp in June, Zvada was perfect, going 13-for-13 and drilling kicks from 53, 56 and 60 yards. He then followed that with an 8-for-8 session in front of reporters.
Sauls, meanwhile, went 7-of-14 over that same three-day stretch, with most of his misses leaking wide left. By the end of it, the buzz around the rookie’s leg had taken hold.
But the first live practice of camp changed the picture. Sauls got the first-team work, and that alone was a reset of the spring order. Instead of chasing the job, he was back in the mix with the starters.
The two kickers arrive at the battle from very different angles.
Zvada came in as a college star after winning the 2024 Bakken-Andersen Big Ten Kicker of the Year award at Michigan. He signed a three-year, $3.125 million undrafted deal, and his calling card is obvious: range. He’s the guy who can bang one from 60 in a spring setting and make everyone stop and look.
Sauls brings a different kind of argument. The undrafted Pittsburgh product got his NFL chance during the 2025 kicking carousel after Graham Gano’s neck injury ended the veteran’s season in November.
In three games, Sauls made all eight of his field-goal attempts and all seven extra points, with a long of 45 yards against Dallas in the finale. The Giants also cleared the lane further by releasing Jason Sanders in May, leaving the job to Sauls and Zvada.
For now, the battle is about more than leg strength. Special teams coordinator Chris Horton is going to care a lot more about live preseason kicks than a controlled minicamp workout. Zvada gives the Giants a weapon from deep, while Sauls has the cleaner NFL sample and showed he could handle a pressure spot in the opener’s two-minute drill.
The race goes on through August, with three preseason games and daily reps still to come. Zvada spent the spring looking like the answer. Sauls used Day 1 of camp to make sure that answer isn’t settled yet.
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