NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Titans finally made a commitment to a position of need this week by trading for veteran kicker Nick Folk from the New England Patriots.

Tennessee sent a 2025 seventh-round draft pick to the Patriots for the 38-year-old kicker, who has over 15 years of NFL experience. 

Despite his age, Folk had the best years of his career as a member of the Pats, making 89.3 percent of kicks from 2019-2022 in Foxborough. But Folk does not come without his limitations and questions.

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Folk the kicker

Now before I dive into the unanswered questions about Folk, I want to make it clear that he is extremely reliable as a field goal kicker. 

Since 2019, 20 NFL kickers have attempted 100 or more field goals. Folk is fourth amongst that group in field goal percentage (89.3) over that span while making 12 of 17 attempts from 50+ yards away.

Folk provides an experienced, reliable, and steady presence at the kicker position that has not existed in Nashville since Ryan Succop departed in 2019. So despite everything I'm about to unpack, there should be no doubt that acquiring Folk was a good move for the Titans.

Folk the kickoff-er

That being said, one of the more underrated skills an NFL kicker needs to have (albeit less important than making field goals) is the ability to perform kickoffs. 

Mike Vrabel and the Titans talk at length about the importance of covering kicks because field position matters in this league. Starting with good field position gives a major boost to any offense and limiting kick returns is one of the many nuances that can impact the outcome of a game. The best way to do that is by kicking a touchback.

But last season in New England, Folk really struggled while splitting kickoff duties for the league's worst kickoff unit (via DVOA statistics). 

Folk was one of 36 different NFL kickers that attempted 20+ kickoffs last season. Of that group, Folk was dead last (36th) in kickoff average at 58.4 yards per kick. He was also the only kicker of that group below a 60.0 yard average.

Those 35 other kickers individually averaged 43.8 total touchbacks on the season. Meanwhile, Folk had…three. Yes, three.

When Titans head coach Mike Vrabel was asked about Folk's kickoff numbers from the past, he did not appear concerned. Vrabel also alluded to the possibility that the Patriots were asking Folk to intentionally put his kickoffs short so that they could cover them instead of taking the touchback.

"I don't know if that's been something that's an issue," said Vrabel of Folk's kickoff history. "I think that whatever [the Patriots] were asking him to do, I think we feel comfortable, whether we were going to kick a touchback, or whether we're going to go cover kicks and wherever we do it at."

But before we move on and chalk this up to another unconventional strategy deployed by Bill Belichick, it's worth noting that Jake Bailey – New England's punter and kickoff platoon for Folk – booted 28 touchbacks on the year while averaging 64.1 yards per kickoff. Those numbers are more aligned with Folk having limitations than a "kick it short" strategy used by the Patriots.

Vrabel has made it clear this week that Nick Folk will be performing kickoffs for the Titans during the regular season. "Nick (Folk) is our kicker. We don't have a kickoff-er," said Vrabel on Thursday.

Tennessee's head coach also shut down the idea of punter Ryan Stonehouse being considered for that responsibility.

"It would be an emergency thing. It's not something I think we really want to explore. Just from a mechanics standpoint, injury, I don't think that's something that he's trained for," said Vrabel of Stonehouse. "He could do it in an emergency and did do it. We're always ready to do it. But I don't think we would start there."

So what is the unanswered question about the Titans' new kicker? It's not so much if he will kicking off for Tennessee this season, but can he perform kickoffs effectively?

This will be the first time since 2016 that Folk has been full-time on a kickoff unit. Folk told Titans media on Thursday that he trained differently this offseason with an understanding that he would be asked to do kickoffs more. 

Only time will tell if that preparation translates into better results. But it's clear that, at least for now, the Titans are not too concerned.

Titans get intriguing insurance policy with new addition

Loads of untapped potential here.