Riley Patterson kicked well enough in games that the Detroit Lions would have felt comfortable with him handling those duties down the stretch, but Michael Badgley was more consistent in practice and that ultimately led the Lions to pick Badgley as their kicker this week.
“It was clear at the end of the day that he was playing better,” Lions special teams coordinator Dave Fipp said Thursday. “My job is to really have the best interests of the whole team in mind, or the whole locker room and all those players sitting in that meeting, and it’s not just one person but it’s really I have a responsibility to be fair to all of them by playing whoever I think’s the best player. With a kicker it’s pretty clear, makes and misses and percentages. And I do think that practice matters and I do think that players trend towards what their practice stuff is.”
Fipp said the Lions held a kicking competition between Patterson — who they cut Tuesday to make room for rookie quarterback Hendon Hooker on the 53-man roster — and Badgley, who remains temporarily on practice squad, since returning from their bye in early November.
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Patterson made the game-winning 41-yard field goal as time expired in a Week 10 win over the Los Angeles Chargers and his only two other field goal attempts in the past five games, but he missed extra points in losses to the Green Bay Packers on Thanksgiving and Chicago Bears in early December.
Badgley, who made 20 of 24 field goals in 12 games with the Lions last season, was the more accurate kicker in practice, Fipp said.
“They would each get roughly six kicks a day and we kicked them at least twice a week, so 12 kicks a week,” he said. “And over the course of six weeks, Badgley had been better and we didn’t want to rush to make that decision right away, we felt like he deserved as fair of an opportunity as we could have given him.”
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Badgley made all six of his extra points in last week’s win over the Denver Broncos and should handle most kicking duties going forward. The Lions can elevate him to kick two more times from practice squad before they have to promote him to the 53-man roster.
Fipp reiterated the decision was not about leg strength; the Lions attempted just four kicks of 40-plus yards this season (and two beyond 50) with Patterson, but Badgley is “very comparable” in terms of range.
And he said he feels “very comfortable” with Badgley as his kicker going forward.
“It was definitely tough, but ultimately it was fairly clear to all of us, I think,” he said. “The one thing I love about him is he’s going to swing at the ball the exact same way every time. It doesn’t matter if it’s a 53-yarder or it’s, whatever, a 22-yarder. He’s going to approach the ball the same way every single time. He’s very consistent and mentally he really doesn’t waver. Make, miss, he knows that he’s going to miss some. We all do. Obviously, we hope not very many, but he’s very, very flat-line.”
Contact Dave Birkett at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.
