Be careful for what you wish for, Patriots fans.
New England Patriots fans haven’t had too much to be upset about this season, as the defending Super Bowl champs have jumped out to a 4-0 start and are once again the favorites to make a Super Bowl run.
But there’s been one veteran player on the team that has had fans often calling for his job – kicker Stephen Gostkowski.
Well, those fans got their wish Wednesday when the team announced they had placed Gostkowski on IR with a hip injury. He’s now set to have surgery and his season is over.
Which isn’t great news for the Patriots.
Gostkowski drove fans nuts last Sunday when he missed his fourth extra point of the season in their 16-10 win over the Buffalo Bills.
While he made a big FG late in last year’s Super Bowl victory, he does have some big misses in his past, including a PAT in the 2015 AFC Championship Game that cost them dearly in their loss to the Broncos.
But here’s the thing – Gostkowski has made a number of important kicks during his 14 years with the Patriots. In a situation like this with your kicking game, you’re most likely better off with a proven commodity who can hopefully fix what’s wrong than having to reach out and find someone who has been watching football on TV this year – just ask the Jets.
The Patriots reportedly worked out a number of kickers on Wednesday and have narrowed their decision to two – Kai Forbath, who last kicked for the Jaguars as a fill-in, and Mike Nugent who last kicked for the Raiders as a fill-in.
Neither of those guys should instill a ton of confidence in Patriots fans.
New England is likely going to be playing in huge games in January, and possibly even February. Kicks in those situations are a lot different than kicks for a couple of guys who have never been on that stage.
At least with Gostkowski he’s a kicker who knows what it’s like to run on the field and boot a FG that wraps up a Super Bowl win.
(Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
Kickers across the NFL have had a rough year this year. The Jets, for instance, have had four kickers since the preseason. The Bears had a mind-boggling kicking competition, too, as they tried to mentally recover from their kicking disaster in the playoffs last season.
A good, dependable kicker has proven to be difficult to find. The Patriots have been lucky in that they’ve only had three kickers during the Bill Belichick years – Adam Vinatieri, Shayne Graham (who kicked in 8 games in 2010), and Gostkowski. That’s it. And that’s something that is apparently really easy to take for granted.
Now the Patriots step into the unknown, which could cost them when it matters most.
