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Alex Henery's struggles continue; Eagles 2014 kicker might not be on the roster yet

The Eagles 2014 kicker might not even be on the roster yet.

Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports

I'm not sure what much more can be said about much-maligned Philadelphia Eagles kicker Alex Henery. Coming off a below average 2013 performance where he kicked 82.1% on field goals (22nd) and had a second-to-last average kickoff distance of of 64.7 yards (31st), Henery has done little this summer to inspire much confidence moving forward.

There's no question Henery has had a solid training camp. From the practices I've watched, I've seen Henery only miss two kicks on 31 attempts. Then again, training camp isn't really close to an in-game kicking situation. There's much less pressure. Kickers know they're going to get multiple attempts. There isn't a block team actively trying to stop the kick.

When it comes to the preseason, Henery's field goal struggles have been obvious. He's only made one -- a 37 yarder when the Eagles were up 14 -- in the preseason so far. His two misses have come from 47 and 31. The 47-yard miss against the Patriots did not even come close. The 31-yard miss came in the fourth quarter of a preseason game.

That's a kick Henery needs to make, period. No excuses. Eagles head coach Chip Kelly said as much following the Eagles' 31-21 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday night.  "Obviously, you got to make a field goal like that. You got to make it," Kelly said. Kelly was visibly frustrated with Henery's miss.

It clear that Henery's job isn't safe. The team brought in rookie kicker Carey Spear earlier this offseason. When Spear proved ineffective, the team traded for rookie Cody Parkey. Parkey made his lone extra point attempt against the Steelers but did not attempt a field goal.

It seems that Spear won't be on the team for much longer and I'm not sure if Parkey will amount to anything, though I suppose it's possible. At this point I'm wondering if the Eagles 2014 kicker is not even on the roster yet. As mentioned earlier this week, the Eagles are keeping an eye on teams with two kickers. There are 14 other teams in the NFL that have two kickers. Teams like the New York Giants (Brandon McManus, Josh Brown) and the Buffalo Bills (Dustin Hopkins, Dan Carpenter) have two kickers who are kicking well this summer. There's bound to be some intriguing names on the free agent market when cuts take place soon.

It'll be interesting to see what happens. I just feel it's reached a point where it would be hard for one of those kickers who gets cut to be worse than Henery is now. But I have no idea how this is going to play out.

The one thing I do know is what many have been concerned with for quite some time now: the Eagles have a kicker problem.

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