It took only two weeks for kicker Dan Carpenter to return to the AFC East. The hard part now will be earning a chance to stay for at least that much longer.
Carpenter's had a pretty interesting 13 or so days — cut by the Miami Dolphins, signed and cut by the Arizona Cardinals and, oh yea, throw the birth of his first child in the mix too.
His roller coaster ride continued Tuesday, as the New York Jets announced the acquisition of the veteran via Twitter.
That gives the 27-year-old a couple days worth of practice and one more preseason game against the Philadelphia Eagles to oust incumbent Nick Folk, who has already won one kick-off this training camp against Billy Cundiff. Cundiff was cut by the team earlier in the day.
"All I’m going to do is show up," Carpenter told Charlie Frankel of newyorkjets.com when asked about the short time frame. "They wanted me up here, I’m here, I’m going to kick the best I can and leave it up to them to make a decision."
Given the Jets' performance in the kicking department last weekend, Carpenter may not even need his best effort to dethrone Folk. While solid before Game 3 of the preseason, both Folk and Cundiff had issues in overtime against the Giants, each a little shaky while Tom Coughlin tactfully used his timeouts.
Despite his release, Cundiff had actually made all of his field goal attempts and extra points this preseason; Folk's only miss came in the team's eventual OT win Saturday, capped off by a 32-yarder by Cundiff.
While Carpenter has proven to be more consistent than Folk in years past, Folk has once again been impressive this offseason while trying to keep his kick-off streak of three years straight alive.
The 28-year-old seemed to take the news of Carpenter's signing in stride Tuesday, telling Frankel that competition is all part of the game.
"They’re doing their due diligence to make sure that they feel they have the best people for this team,” Folk said. "That’s what I think it’s coming down to.
"Teams are always looking to get better at any part during the year. Whether that’s February, whether that’s now, whether that’s Week 13, they’re always trying to get better."
