John Maakaron of All Lions examines the Detroit Lions kicking situation, heading into the 2023 NFL season.
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00:00 John, the Lions might have an issue at kicker to start the 2023 campaign.
00:03 What do you make of that potentially being a case for the lines at the
00:06 kicking position to open up the season?
00:09 Yeah, Vito, really, when you look at the totality of the situation, it's a
00:14 little bit head-scratching regarding how the Lions have handled this kicking
00:17 situation last year, having Michael Badgley and Riley Patterson at some
00:21 point on the roster, and then this year heading into training camp, they
00:25 move on from Michael Badgley.
00:26 They bring back Riley Patterson and have a competition with Parker Romo.
00:31 Look, by all accounts, based on the performance, it was pretty even at
00:35 first, but then Riley Patterson kind of really showed his consistency and
00:40 was a player that I thought was going to likely win the competition.
00:44 And then you hear that Parker Romo, obviously the team moves on from, but
00:47 then for Michael Badgley to end up back on the practice squad, it leaves you
00:52 scratching your head, like why didn't they just feel the need to keep them
00:56 all throughout training camp?
00:57 I know maybe they wanted to get a look at Parker Romo and have a
01:00 competition with Riley Patterson, but you heard on cut day that the team was
01:05 potentially still making phone calls, trying to trade for a kicker.
01:09 So when you hear reports like that, what kind of confidence does that show in the
01:15 active kicker that's on the roster right now in Riley Patterson?
01:18 And you look at his game, it's real interesting in that he has added leg
01:23 strength, you do see it on kickoffs, but are the Lions confident that if a 53 to
01:28 60 yard kick needs to be attempted, is he the right guy for the job?
01:33 I just think right now you can pretty much assume and presume that he's
01:37 solid between 40 and 50 yards.
01:39 But beyond Vito, I think the Detroit Lions probably are going to go for
01:44 it a lot more on fourth down, just due to the fact that Riley Patterson
01:47 hasn't showed consistency from deep.
01:50 And if you're a football team, that's going to be in close games.
01:54 Are you going to count on the kicker to make a 55 yarder when last year
01:59 against the Vikings, a similar situation happened and it did not
02:03 turn out in the Lions favor.
02:04 So right now I'm a little bit concerned about the kicking situation and
02:08 hopefully the Lions address it.
02:09 And maybe hopefully Riley Patterson, if he ends up staying in Detroit,
02:13 hopefully he can kind of quell the nerves of a lot of supporters who are looking
02:18 at the kicking situation with a lot more anxiety than they did last week.
02:21 Dan Campbell, Ben Johnson, go for a fourth down.
02:25 John, thanks for all the time.