Cade York to ‘stick to what makes me good’ after first-year struggles
BEREA — Cade York, like every other NFL rookie, didn’t know what he didn’t know when he got to the league.
Or, did the Browns kicker?
As York stood at his locker a day after his rookie season ended and assessed what it was that he learned in his first year, the reality of that lesson wasn’t some kind of jarring premonition. Instead, it was more of a reminder than anything.
“Really, just gotta stick to what makes me good,” York said Monday. “When it’s time to get into the season, got to get into game mode and stop working on stuff. And even though it’s – I’m gonna strive to always be better – maybe not make that always a focus where you’re trying to get better because sometimes you just gotta do what you’re good at. I think that’s kind of what I realized later on in the year. And maybe too little, too late but still we’ll able to put some good stuff out there and decide to come back next year and just be better.”
York started his rookie season by winning AFC Special Teams Player of the Week after his 58-yard field goal with eight seconds left beat the Carolina Panthers in the opener. The Texan was the toast of the town, even as he told fans that, “Cleveland could hate me after next game.”
They may have, as York missed a critical late-game point-after kick that allowed the New York Jets a chance to steal a 31-30 win in the home opener. However, he only missed one more PAT the rest of the season and finished the year with 29 makes it a row.
It was on field goals where the struggles mounted, including some critical missed or blocked kicks in October losses to the Los Angeles Chargers and Baltimore Ravens. York finished 24-of-32 on field goals, including 10-of-15 from 40 yards or longer.
“I mean it wasn’t all bad things,” York said. “Like I said, I hit a lot of good balls. I hit long field goals. Yeah, there was some blocks and there were some bad misses. It’s not all negatives to pull away from it. There were still positives. It was a lot of pretty darn good things and then a few really crappy things. So, that’s just what I gotta’ work on next year.”
The annoyance York has with the struggles and the time it took to remedy them is due to the fact it wasn’t the first time he went through them. In fact, it was the exact same thing he dealt the last time he transitioned to a higher level during his freshman season kicking for LSU’s 2019 national championship team.
That year, he made just 21-of-27 field goals and 89-of-93 PATs. The final two years in Baton Rouge, he made every one of his 75 PATs and 33-of-39 field goals.
All of that is why York is confident his second season with the Browns should be much smoother than his first. It’s also why the ultra-confident 21-year-old was so upset it took him so long to figure out the issue.
“I mean, knowing myself, I’m never going to have issues with lack of confidence,” York said. “You gotta’ walk that borderline of cocky and confident. So I’m not too worried about that. It’s all about the next kick. So yes, season had its ups and downs and I’m going to try and be more even-keeled going forward and it’s annoying that I didn’t heed the lesson I learned from my freshman year of college, but lesson learned and I’m moving forward.”
For now, moving forward for York is just getting back to his home state of Texas. He acknowledged he’ll take a bit of a break, having kicked non-stop from the start of his final season at LSU, through the pre-draft process and then on through his rookie season.
However, once that break is over to allow his leg to recover, it’ll be back to work. York said he’ll continue to work with his own personal kicking coach Morgan Lineberry, whom the Browns flew to Cleveland every other week through the season.