Jake Bates will still have competition, despite the loss of Badgley, and will go through pressure to earn the job
The Detroit Lions kicker competition was one of the things that everyone was looking forward to seeing and finding out the result of at training camp this year. Now things are about to change. Michael Badgley suffered a severe injury getting ready for practice on Thursday and is now out for the season. Newly signed […]
The Detroit Lions kicker competition was one of the things that everyone was looking forward to seeing and finding out the result of at training camp this year. Now things are about to change. Michael Badgley suffered a severe injury getting ready for practice on Thursday and is now out for the season.
Newly signed kicker Jake Bates, who lit up the world in the UFL for the Michigan Panthers this past spring, is now the lone kicker on the Lions staff, but he shouldn't be. The Lions should still have James Turner on their roster, but they weirdly cut him in June and he's now with the Packers.
Bates is not out of the woods and guaranteed to get the job just yet. Per Dan Campbell, the Lions are working out kickers and Bates is about to go through a pressure cooker in order to win the job.
"We got to put him in as many pressure situations as we can at camp."
The Lions still have to see if Bates can be accurate under NFL pressure. He has a big leg and there's no doubt about that, but Bates has shown to have some accuracy issues. Despite a hot start with the Panthers last spring, Bates wound up going through an icy period down the stretch and finished the season with seven misses in 11 games. That's rough.
The good news is that he's had a phenomenal start to camp. He went six for six on day two of training camp and looked good in the kickoffs as well. We'll see if he can keep that up now that he's about to go through some pressure and soon have some competition to face.