The BC Lions Football Club is pleased to announce that international placekicker and punter Swayze Waters has signed a contract with the team for the 2017 season.
“Swayze is an accomplished kicker who can look after all three duties at a very high level,” said GM and head coach Wally Buono. “This is a major signing for the club as it fills a significant need for us after Richie’s departure and allows us to have an extra position player on the roster rather than dressing both a punter and a kicker.”
Waters (6’0”, 180) originally came to the CFL as a member of the Edmonton Eskimos in June 2012. He eventually made his way to the Toronto Argonauts and enjoyed a championship run to the 100th Grey Cup that year. The Mississippi native departed the Double Blue following the 2015 season and signed with the NFL’s Carolina Panthers.
In 2014, he earned the CFL’s Most Outstanding Special Teams Player nod after leading the league in kicking points (192), field goals (47) as well as punting average (47.7 yards). No player had previously accomplished that feat since the Lions’ own Lui Passaglia’s did so in 1983. Waters was also good on 90.4% of his field goal attempts that year.
Waters has appeared in 46 games through four seasons (2012-2015) and has a 79.5% success rate on field goals (101/127). His career punting average is 46.9 yards and his average on kickoffs sits at 65.6 yards.