Despite the fact that the New Orleans Saints are bringing in a veteran kicker to help with the kicking duties, kicker Garrett Hartley remains on the roster and still is in the Saints' plans, Hartley's agent said Tuesday night. According to a league source, the Saints have reached a one-year contract agreement with 46-year-old kicker John Carney to help solidify the Saints' struggling field goal kicking. Hartley, 24, missed a 29-yard field goal in overtime that would have lifted the Saints to a win over the Atlanta Falcons. Instead, the Falcons went on to win 27-24, creating plenty of public debate about whether the Saints should cut ties with the kicker who booted them into the Super Bowl then set a record in the game by kicking three field goals of at least 40 yards. It remains unclear whom the Saints will release to make room for Carney but Hartley, who has missed three of his seven attempts this year, has been assured that Hartley still is the future of the Saints kicking game. "I don't know who they'll activate, but Garrett is still a part of their plans," Hartley's agent Erik Burkhardt said. "They made it clear that he is their kicker of the future. And I want to point out that even with his three misses this year he is still an 86 percent field goal kicker for his career. So that puts him No. 6 in the league over the last three seasons. "Long term they have made it very clear that they want Garrett to be their kicker and work through this. And that's what they did last year when he came back from his suspension. They stayed with him and they believed in him and it paid huge dividends in the end and helped them get to and win the Super Bowl." Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune
