Dominik Eberle (born July 4, 1996) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

placekicker Placekicker, or simply kicker (PK or K), is the player in gridiron football who is responsible for the kicking duties of field goals and extra points. In many cases, the placekicker also serves as the team's kickoff specialist or punter. Spe ...

who is currently a free agent. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for the

Utah State Aggies The Utah State Aggies are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Utah State University, located in Logan. The school fields 16 sports teams – seven men and nine women – and compete in the Mountain West Conference. Sports spon ...

. He made his NFL debut in Week 16 of the

2021 NFL season The 2021 NFL season was the 102nd season of the National Football League (NFL). The season was the first to feature a 17-game regular season schedule as the league expanded the season from 16 games. The regular season started on September 9, ...

Early life

Eberle was born in

Nuremberg, Germany Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ci ...

in 1996 to Güenther Eberle and Carmen Romero-Eberle. He has one sibling. Eberle eventually moved to California and attended Redondo Union High School where he played football and soccer.

College career

Eberle enrolled to play football at

Utah State University Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah's ...

in 2015 and

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Entertainment * ''Red Shirts'' (film), a 1952 film about Anita Garibaldi by Franco Rossi * Redshirt (stock character), originally derived from ''Star Trek'', a stock character who dies soon after b ...

ed his first year. After appearing in 4 games in his redshirt first year, Eberle earned starting kicking duties in 2017 as a redshirt sophomore. Eberle performed well appearing in all 13 games, hitting all 47 extra point attempts, and hitting 18 of 24 field goal attempts. Eberle was named a finalist for the Lou Groza Award. Eberle would go on to start his junior and senior seasons. Eberle finished his career at Utah State hitting 64 field goals and 167 extra points, setting the program record for field goals made.

Professional career

Las Vegas Raiders

After going undrafted in the

2020 NFL Draft The 2020 NFL Draft was the 85th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2020 NFL season. The first round was held on April 23, followed by the second and third rounds on April 24. The d ...

, Eberle was signed to the practice squad for the Las Vegas Raiders.

Carolina Panthers

In 2021, Eberle would join the

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. T ...

practice squad. After being cut and resigned again, Eberle was ultimately cut again from the Panthers.

Houston Texans

Ahead of week 16,

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division, and play their home ga ...

kicker

Kaʻimi Fairbairn John Christian Kaiminoeauloamekaikeokekumupaa "Kaimi" Fairbairn (born January 29, 1994) is an American football placekicker for the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL). Playing college football at UCLA, he was a consensus fir ...

was placed on the COVID-19 restricted list, and in anticipation, the Texans signed Eberle to their practice squad. On December 26, 2021, Fairbairn was unable to return to the team and Eberle was promoted to debut in his first NFL game against the Los Angeles Chargers. He was released on January 5, 2022.

Carolina Panthers (second stint)

On January 8, 2022, Eberle was signed to the Carolina Panthers practice squad.

Green Bay Packers

On February 22, 2022, Eberle signed with the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

. On June 14, he was released.

Detroit Lions

On September 9, 2022, Eberle was signed to the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

practice squad. He was promoted to the active roster on October 1. He was released on October 4, after missing two extra points in Week 4.

NFL career statistics

References

External links

Utah State Aggies bio
1996 births Living people American football placekickers Carolina Panthers players Detroit Lions players German players of American football Green Bay Packers players Houston Texans players Las Vegas Raiders players Sportspeople from Nuremberg Utah State Aggies football players {{Amfoot-kicker-stub