The Washington Commanders have made their call at kicker, and the choice comes with a little more backing than just a good preseason showing. Undrafted rookie Drew Stevens is the man moving forward over veteran Jake Moody, and the numbers from FanSided’s Adam Fromal help explain why Washington felt comfortable making the switch.
Stevens came into the competition with momentum, and he strengthened it with a sharp preseason performance against the Miami Dolphins while Moody looked shaky. That was enough for the Commanders to lean into the rookie, even though it carries risk. If Stevens can turn this chance into something stable, Washington may finally have an answer to a position that has been unsettled for a long time.
Fromal’s Kicker Value Added metric puts real shape around the decision. It’s designed to judge kickers by more than simple make-or-miss totals, weighing the difficulty of the attempt and the value of the kick against league expectations.
As Fromal explained, “Instead of treating all makes and misses equally, KVA measures how much value a kicker actually adds (or costs) relative to league expectations from the same distances across the field. A long-distance conversion shouldn’t be weighed the same as a chip shot, and a miss doesn’t carry the same meaning everywhere on the field.
Making a 55-yarder this year shouldn't be treated the same as a kicker drilling a 55-yarder in 1985. KVA captures that difference.”
That matters for Stevens because his profile gives Washington something it hasn’t had in a while: distance. His work in camp showed more consistency from beyond 45 yards than Moody, the 2023 third-round pick out of Michigan, and he appears capable of connecting from up to 60 yards and maybe farther.
His college accuracy rate of 80 percent is a concern, but his ability to deal with poor weather conditions also stood out to Fromal. As he put it, “His average made field goal came from 39.4 yards last year, and his experience in adverse weather conditions could give him the proverbial leg up on Jake Moody to helm the Washington Commanders' depth chart.”
Fromal also cautioned that Stevens still has work to do, especially when it comes to translating his power to the pro game. “Though Drew Stevens showed off his powerful leg and mental resiliency throughout a tumultuous but record-setting career at Iowa, the Commanders are still figuring out how his power will translate as he makes the necessary tweaks to up his kick trajectory. Experience in poor weather conditions and a lengthy long-range resume work in his favor, but the jury is still out on his true upside.”
Still, the case against Moody was hard to ignore. Fromal noted that Moody’s KVA over the last two seasons is -13.56, which placed him in “a tier of his own,” and not in a good way.
By comparison, Dallas Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey posted a +24.25 KVA over the same stretch. In an NFC East where every point matters, that gap stands out.
Washington gave Moody another look, but the runway was never going to be clean for long. Stevens entered the mix well, then kept separating himself as the work intensified. When the cracks showed, the Commanders moved on.
Now the spotlight shifts to Stevens’ rookie season and how his KVA evolves from here. The Commanders need to let him work through the inevitable rough patches instead of rushing back into the same cycle. For a team that has spent too long searching for stability at kicker, this is the shot Stevens came here to earn.
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