Charlie Smyth

Current Contract

Contract Value Index (CVI)

Among placekicker contracts at this AAV tier, Charlie Smyth's grades a C Contract Value Index. The verdict reflects a fundamental mismatch: a second-year kicker commanding $988K annually on a three-year deal while posting a D+ performance grade and operating in the Saints' organizational shadows as a depth specialist rather than a trusted starter. Smyth logged just six games in the 2025 season—a sample too thin to establish reliability at the position—leaving the Saints with minimal empirical evidence to justify the guaranteed commitment over a kicker's typical one-year, prove-it contract. At 24 with only two seasons of NFL exposure, he sits at a career inflection point where the contract demands immediate elevation to legitimacy; instead, the recent roster moves (signings across linebacker, safety, defensive tackle, and receiver depth) signal front-office resources directed elsewhere, implicitly messaging that Smyth remains a placeholder rather than a cornerstone. The mediaFraming captures this precisely: his C-grade contract reflects neither disaster nor value—it's a modest, unremarkable deal for a depth option, and the 2026 season will determine whether he justifies it through clutch execution or slides further down the organizational priority list.

Contracts in the Same Value Band

Other same-position deals the Contract Value Index also places in the C band — a quick read on where Charlie's contract sits relative to comparable money.

Performance Analysis

At just 24 years old and two seasons into his NFL career, Charlie Smyth currently grades as a below-average kicker with limited data to support a stronger evaluation — appearing in just 6 games, his sample size remains too thin to draw definitive conclusions about his long-term viability at the position. The most telling detail about his current standing is not what he has done, but what he has not yet done: he lacks the statistical footprint or media visibility that typically separates a reliable starting kicker from a depth specialist competing for a roster spot. His age and modest $1.0M contract reflect his standing as an unproven commodity, and the Saints' active offseason roster maneuvering — adding defenders, cycling through skill position depth — underscores that the organization has larger positional questions than the kicking game right now. As the mediaFraming makes clear, Smyth operates well below the radar, generating neither the buzz of a breakout performer nor the scrutiny of a costly liability, which is both his shield and his ceiling. For an undrafted second-year player, anonymity is a fragile safety net — the 2026 season, with the regular season still 131 days away, represents his clearest opportunity yet to either cement a roster spot or fade into the transactional shuffle that has already claimed several Saints skill position players this spring.

How Charlie Compares at the Position

Charlie Smyth ranks 32nd of 39 graded pks by performance. That slots Charlie between Tyler Bass (D+) just ahead and Ryan Fitzgerald (D+) just behind.

Current Sentiment

Charlie Smyth's public standing heading into the 2026 season is essentially a flatline — not toxic, not celebrated, just absent, which is precisely what a D sentiment grade reflects for a second-year kicker operating almost entirely below the radar of mainstream football discourse. The narrative around him is defined less by criticism than by a near-total vacuum of coverage: he logged just 6 games in the 2025 season, a sample too thin to generate any meaningful reputation in either direction, leaving him firmly in the depth-specialist category rather than anything approaching a trusted starter. That anonymity aligns cleanly with his D+ performance grade — the on-field production has been underwhelming enough to offer no compelling counter-narrative to the organizational messaging embedded in his modest $1.0M contract, which telegraphs that the Saints view him as a placeholder rather than a cornerstone. The Saints' recent roster activity — a wave of defensive signings including Zxavian Harris, Martin Emerson, Anfernee Jennings, and Michael Heldman, alongside cuts at receiver and running back — underscores a front office focused on upgrading competitive depth elsewhere, doing nothing to elevate Smyth's profile or generate any adjacent buzz around his standing on the depth chart. At 24 with the regular season still 125 days away, the window to change the story is open, but right now the narrative is blunt: Smyth is a kicker who has neither earned job security through clutch moments nor drawn heat through visible failures, and until 2026 forces the conversation one way or the other, he remains one of the more anonymous specialists in the league.