The thing that sticks out the most about the Lions' signing of Jake Bates and what that could mean for 2024

Well, it happened. The thing that Detroit Lions fans have been clamoring for since March. The Lions are signing Michigan Panthers kicker Jake Bates to a two-year deal.  The excitement is understandable. Bates has a major leg and he showed that when he hit a 64-yard walk off field goal against the St. Louis Battlehawks […]

Mike Payton — Detroit Lions Beat Writer
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David Guralnick, Detroit News

Well, it happened. The thing that Detroit Lions fans have been clamoring for since March. The Lions are signing Michigan Panthers kicker Jake Bates to a two-year deal. 

The excitement is understandable. Bates has a major leg and he showed that when he hit a 64-yard walk off field goal against the St. Louis Battlehawks in Week 1 of the UFL season. The biggest thing about that is if it happened in the NFL, it would have been the second longest kick in the history of the league. 

The Lions were two field goal attempts away from maybe making it the Super Bowl in January and one of the big reasons why the Lions didn't attempt those field goals, beyond the fact that it would have been them abandoning their identity, was that Michael Badgley had been unreliable from distance. Bates, as we can see, can hit from distance.

Bates is here now, but the story isn't finished yet. He's still going to have to earn that spot and his two-year contract, which sticks out the most, isn't necessarily a guarantee that he will. 

Bates nailed that 64-yard kick, but as the season started to go on, he became a lot less reliable. Bates had seven misses in 11 games and his inexperience kicking field goals really started to show. He wasn't just missing from distance either, he had some misses from the 35-40-yard region. 

As noted, there isn't a lot of experience there. Before that 64-yard field goal, Bates hadn't kicked a field goal in a game since 2017. when he was in high school. He was a soccer player at Central Arkansas for two years before transferring to Texas State in 2020 to play football. They used him as a kick off specialist. Then he transferred Arkansas in 2022 and they also used him a kickoff specialist. 

There's a good chance that he needs more time. This the NFL and kicking in the NFL is different from kicking in the UFL, college and high school. The pressure is dialed way up. The Lions could very well choose to use that first year for Bates as a year to get ready to be an NFL kicker. 

That could mean the Lions would use a roster spot to stash him. It seems weird, but it's not unprecedented or anything like that. The Patriots recently did this in 2022, although they didn't do it for the entire season. Other teams have pondered doing it in recent years as well. 

It may not be a full season thing. The Lions could go with the incumbent Michael Badgley for a bit and then choose to go with Bates for the rest of the year after that when they feel the time is right. 

The other option is the practice squad. That would mean the Lions would have to cut Bates and then hope he clears waivers. That could still happen if he doesn't have the best camp. Which is possible.

No matter what happens, he's going to have to have a good summer. We know he can hit from distance, but he needs to show to the Detroit Lions that he can be accurate. The Lions can still bail out of this during cutdown time if he doesn't impress them. 

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