New York Giants assistant head coach/special teams coordinator Chris Horton still believes in kicker Dominic Zvada.

Despite the rookie’s recent struggles, Horton remains confident that Zvada has the physical talent and mental fortitude to be New York’s long-term investment at the position. To ensure that happens, one of his most important post-bye duties will be keeping the kicker’s confidence high.

“I’ve said this before: Just continue to believe in the kid,” Horton said. “Just help him understand some of those misses; a lot of those things are fundamental things that I know we can get fixed, we can take care of.

“We spend a lot of time on the bye week, just diving into it and just thinking about what we can do on these kicks,” he added.

“We just watch those kicks over and over and over again, and he will be consistent, and those are the things that we are expecting of him, and he’s expecting of himself.”

After starting his rookie season a perfect 9-for-9 on field goals, including three makes from 50-plus yards, Zvada’s fortunes have reversed sharply in recent weeks.

The undrafted rookie out of Michigan missed three field-goal attempts in New York’s Week 5 tie with the Washington Commanders, followed by 44- and 56-yard misses in Week 7 against the Texans.

In total, Zvada has connected on 13 of 18 field-goal attempts while going 12-for-12 on extra points.

Giants Are Not Yet Ready to Make a Change at Kicker

Though some have begun to question whether Zvada’s difficulties may be a harbinger of things to come, Horton made it clear that the Giants are not yet ready to declare them a worrisome problem.

“I don’t think that’s something that we think about,” Horton said. “I think we think about the process of now, where are we now? And so far, you think about the kicks that he has missed, the five kicks that he’s missed, again, to me, those are all fundamental things that we can work on. I don’t think you go into it and say, ‘hey, alright, we need to be worried about this, we need to be worried about that.’”

Head coach John Harbaugh has also said the Giants have no current plans to make a change at kicker. After all, Zvada is still in the midst of an impressive season.

His 51 points not only put him on track to lead all rookies in scoring in 2026 (Ali Haji-Sheikh had 127 in 1983), but also put him just two points behind Washington Commanders kicker Drew Stevens.

Therefore, they remain hopeful that helping Zvada with his plant-foot placement and other fixable mechanics will be enough to get him back on track. While the talent is clearly there, New York cannot afford for its kicking game to become a liability in a postseason bid, a point Horton knows all too well.

“We just let him go out there, and we perform, and we believe in him, let him know we believe in him, and then, yes, we expect kicks to go in,” Horton said. “That’s a requirement. Those are the things that we are asking of him, and he’s asking of himself, and we put him out there, and he’ll go get it done.”

Zvada and the Giants will return from their bye with a Week 9 matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. ET.

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