Michigan Panthers kicker Jake Bates was the talk of the town for Detroit Lions fans ever since he hit a walk off 64-yard field goal early on in the UFL season. He's been the number one guy on their special teams wish list ever since. It makes total sense that he should be linked to […]
Michigan Panthers kicker Jake Bates was the talk of the town for Detroit Lions fans ever since he hit a walk off 64-yard field goal early on in the UFL season. He's been the number one guy on their special teams wish list ever since.
It makes total sense that he should be linked to the Lions. The team has been looking for a solid kicker throughout this entire rebuild and here's one that's already playing in their building. It seems so easy.
After Bates' hot start, the bloom has begun to come off the rose. Bates has really started to cool off since the hot start and the misses have started to rack up a bit. Bates ended the regular season with a missed 53-yard field goal that sailed wide right. That miss cost the Panthers a loss in the final game of the regular season.
Things didn't get too much better from there. In the playoffs Bates hit his first three kicks, including one from 53-yards. Then he missed from 51-yards out and on his next kick, he seemed to roll his ankle on his plant foot and slip on the field with a low kick that got blocked. The ESPN announcers mentioned that he appeared to be hurt. We haven't heard any more on that at this time.
Bates is now up to seven misses on the season and he's ending the year going 20-27. The misses haven't all been from long range either. Bates missed a 39-yard kick recently.
With all that said, the Lions should probably take their ball and go home on this one for multiple reasons. The first being that the misses became a real problem. The Panthers stay in the playoff game with the six points he could have added and they win their last game if he doesn't miss.
The ability to hit long kicks doesn't really mean much if you can't remain accurate. Maybe he takes another year in the UFL and you try again later. He does have the benefit of doubt here since he really hasn't kicked field goals since high school. More time would serve him well.
The other thing is that Lions' undrafted free agent James Turner was money throughout OTAs and mandatory minicamp. He strongly outperformed Michael Badgley, who dealt with misses throughout the duration.
The final reason is that if the Lions are going to give a shot to any UFL kicker, it should be St. Louis Battlehawks' kicker Andre Szmyt.
I know Lions fans want someone who can kick from distance, well Szymt can do that. He had a long of 61-yards this season.
He finished the season going 20-22 in field goals this year. That's the best in the UFL. The two that he missed were longer. He missed one in the 40-49 region and one in the 50 plus region.
Szymt was an award winning kicker at Syracuse. He took home the Lou Groza award in 2018. That is given to the best kicker in college football. He got a shot with the Bears in 2023, but they chose to go with the veteran Cairo Santos.
We'll see what happens in the coming weeks. The UFL season is almost over. NFL teams can sign UFL players the Monday after the UFL Championship game. That's June 17th. Then again, the Lions might just try their hand with James Turner.
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