Younghoe Koo isn’t a lock to be the Falcons’ kicker this year. Head coach Dan Quinn says he’s thinking about adding another kicker to the 90-man offseason roster to compete alongside him.
“We are still definitely considering adding a kicker into that spot,” Quinn said. “You could imagine that some of those decisions involve workouts and things that aren’t at this space.”
The Falcons passed on this year’s class of incoming kickers, which included Justin Rohrwasser (Patriots, fifth round), Tyler Bass (Bills, sixth round), and Sam Sloman (Rams, seventh round). Some expected them to dip into the available crop of rookie kickers, since they’ve had trouble in that department. Last year, they thought they were set with Giorgio Tavecchio. Then, the preseason happened – after Tavecchio missed his fourth attempt out of eight, they briefly pivoted to Blair Walsh before circling back to Matt Bryant. Bryant – who has been reliable, historically – flopped, leading them to Koo in late October.
Koo performed well, nailing 23 of 26 field goal tries and 15 of 16 extra points. Still, the Falcons won’t rest easy when it comes to their kickers. From the sound of it, they’ll have another leg in the mix this summer.
I don’t care if he can’t kick, I want Giorgio Tavecchio in the NFL because his name is so much fun to say.
It amazes me how this part of the game is almost completely ignored. Honestly unless you have a Jason Tucker then every team should have open competition. And yes I know every team brings in extra legs for camp. It just continues to amaze me how teams will just settle for a guy and then wonder why they are 1-3 after their kicker has missed 2 XP and 4 FG.
In defense of coaches, I would say it’s very difficult to determine good kickers from bad simply by watching their movements because almost all of them have identical mechanics. Kicking is about 95% mental preparation and it’s pretty hard to see into these guys heads.
I’d say previous track record is a pretty good look into their head. The NFL retreads kickers more than it does coaches. Different location hoping for a different outcome
Lot of kickers don’t get the chance to build a track record. “Oh, you missed a kick that cost us a win?…your gone!” You would never see a QB held to that standard. Nathan Peterman threw 5 picks in a game and only received a one game benching.
This! It sounds dumb, but Tucker is good because he’s not in his own head. Dude was an opera singer; if you can shake the nerves prancing around in tights and singing Italian in front of an audience, kicking a ball ain’t so bad.
I think it would be fascinating to have several kickers interviewed and learn what little mind games they used to prepare themselves. I don’t ever recall this being done by Ed or Steve Sabol for NFL films.
Will Lutz is good too
I thought he was with the saints
Atlanta really needs a QB competition. Matt is done.
He’s not the reason why they’ve been a losing team since they last made the postseason in 2017, it’s because their defense is total ass cheeks.
No, but he’s not exactly helping their case
please do vinateri
Nooo, not Younghoe!
could’ve had Rodrigo Blankenship for free smh
Kicking should be erased from the game in its entirety. Kickoffs, FGs, XPs. What a waste.
I predict that will happen by the end of this decade but will it make the game better? I think not.
It is called FOOTball for a reason
The football is called a pigskin although everyone is aware that it isn’t actually made of pigskin. We call the field the gridiron even though the surface isn’t actually composed of iron. We use terms like taxi squad although no taxi is involved…etc.
Didnt know he changed his name to Jason wow learn ur stuff
It’s amazing that teams like this and Bears are not going after Stephen Gostkowski
we want younghoe!!
Justin Rohrwasser is a white supremacist.