Go with the veterans or trust the rookies? That’s the decision facing the Patriots at both kicker and punter.
The roster battles this summer between Nick Folk and Chad Ryland (kicker) and Corliss Waitman and Bryce Baringer (punter) were competitive — “very competitive,” head coach Bill Belichick said.
Rookies Ryland and Baringer both showed promise in training camp and the preseason, but neither defeated his experienced counterpart in a landslide. Belichick said New England will have tough choices to make at both spots ahead of Tuesday’s 53-man roster cutdown deadline.
“We haven’t kicked a field goal in preseason; it’s all been touchdowns and no field goal attempts,” Belichick said Friday in a video conference. We had plenty of them in practice, which is what we have to go off of. (Ryland and Folk) both had really good camps, so that’s a pretty tight competition. Same thing with the punter situation. Corliss had two huge punts (Friday) night, one out of the end zone.
“So we’ll see how that goes. It looks like we’ve got very good competition at both of those spots.”
The Patriots did attempt one field goal this preseason, with Folk hitting from 44 yards against the Houston Texans. He added two extra points against the Green Bay Packers and did not play in Friday night’s 23-7 loss to the Tennessee Titans.
Ryland went 2-for-2 on extra points and saw more kickoff opportunities than Folk, kicking off seven times and notching five touchbacks. Folk had two kickoffs and one touchback.
Ryland boasts a much stronger leg than the 38-year-old Folk, but his accuracy wavered at times. In one practice this week, the Maryland product missed three consecutive field-goal tries, all wide left, as part of a 1-for-4 showing. The next day, Folk handled all field-goal duties and went 6-for-9.
The Patriots are unlikely to release Ryland after trading up to make him the highest-drafted specialist of the Belichick era (fourth round, No. 117). But if they don’t have complete trust in the 23-year-old, would they consider keeping both him and Folk, who’s converted nearly 90% of his field goals since arriving in Foxboro in 2019?
Belichick isn’t ruling it out.
“We had two kickers last on the roster in one game,” the coach said, referring to the time the Patriots called up Tristan Vizcaino from the practice squad to have him kick off rather than Folk. “There are a number of things to consider. You look at the whole roster makeup. We’ll get into those this weekend and do what we feel like is best for the team. That’s all I can tell you.”
Cutting Folk and keeping him around on the practice squad is another option, since, as a vested veteran, he would not need to pass through waivers. That would be risky, though, as one of the NFL’s several kicker-needy teams could woo him away with a better offer.
Baringer seems to have a firmer grasp on the punter job, despite Belichick’s praise for how Waitman played against Tennessee. The sixth-round pick averaged 51.5 yards per punt with a 49.9 net this preseason on 11 attempts, shaking off some mid-camp struggles to finish the summer strong. He also was New England’s primary holder. Waitman punted five times, averaging 43.0 yards per with a 38.8 net, though field position influenced the distance of some of his kicks.
