Since he played his first game for New England in 2019, Nick Folk has been one of the Patriots' most consistently reliable players.
But the 38-year-old's run with the franchise might soon come to an end.
Though Folk has one year remaining on his contract, the Patriots traded up in the fourth round of the 2023 NFL Draft to select Chad Ryland, a highly touted (and highly confident) kicker out of Maryland. Ryland was the second kicker selected in this year's draft and the highest-drafted Patriots specialist of the Bill Belichick era. He went 112th overall, six spots higher than where the Patriots took Stephen Gostkowski in 2006.
All Patriots rookies must earn their roles in training camp and the preseason, of course, but teams almost never cut first-year players who were drafted in the first four rounds -- especially when that team traded extra assets to acquire said player. Ryland will be expected to win the starting job over Folk, who remained an above-average field-goal kicker last season but has lost some of his range and is not a viable option on kickoffs.
New England found that out the hard way last season. Folk kicked off 33 times after Jake Bailey's midseason move to injured reserve and had as many touchbacks (three) as kicks that were returned for touchdowns. Not great. Ryland delivered touchbacks on 51 of his 73 kickoffs for the Terrapins last season (69.9%), so he should solve that problem.
But what happens if Ryland, who had a field-goal success rate above 82% in each of the last two seasons, looks erratic this summer, as previous Folk challengers like Justin Rohrwasser and Quinn Nordin did? What if Belichick doesn't feel he can trust the rookie on field goals but still wants his kickoff ability? Would he consider carrying both Ryland and Folk on the 53-man roster? That would be unorthodox and highly controversial, even for a coach like Belichick who annually devotes several roster spots to special teams-only players.
The Patriots had Bailey, a punter, handle kickoff duties for the last several seasons, but they cut him in March after a wretched 2022 season. Sixth-round pick Bryce Baringer and veteran newcomer Corliss Waitman will battle for the right to replace him, and neither has a stellar track record in the kickoff department. Baringer kicked off just once in four seasons at Michigan State. Waitman kicked off 98 times in college at South Alabama, but just 16 of those went for touchbacks (16.3%) and he has zero kickoffs in his NFL career.
NESN.com Patriots beat reporters Zack Cox and Dakota Randall broke down questions facing New England's kicking-game operation on the latest episode of the "NESN Patriots Podcast." Check out a portion of that conversation in the video above, or listen to the full episode in the player below.
