The spotlight is just a little brighter on Detroit Lions kicker Jake Bates now that his counterpart in the kicker competition, Michael Badgley, is out for the season with a torn hamstring.
For now, Bates is the only kicker on the roster, although that figures to change in due time, as the Lions worked out four kickers on Friday and will certainly add at least one to challenge Bates for the starting job.
But with no other kicker on the team currently, Bates got all the work at practice on Saturday. Per Tim Twentyman of DetroitLions.com, Bates got off to a good start, drilling kicks from 54, 51 and 48 yards to make him 9-for-9 overall for training camp.
However, things went off the rails a bit for Bates later on, as he missed from 60, 55 and 46 before making his final attempts from 43 yards and 39 yards.
After Michael Badgley was lost for the season Friday with a hamstring injury, Bates had a chance to take all the kicks in some pressure situations on Saturday. It was an up-and-down day for him. He made his first three field goals early in practice from 54, 51 and 48 yards. In his second set later in practice he missed from 60, 56 and 46 and made from 43 yards. He ended a situational drill with a 39 yarder to win the drill for the offense.
Two of Bates' misses were from serious distance, but he showed he was more than capable of connecting from those distances during the 2024 UFL season, when he made 6-of-10 from 50-plus, including three 60-yarders.
Bates had a 77.3% success rate during the regular season with the Michigan Panthers. Four of those misses were from 50-plus yards, with his shortest miss coming from 39. Two of his misfires occurred from 58 and 62 yards.
While Bates has the potential to be a real weapon, he remains unproven and the Lions would be wise to bring in another kicker. Interestingly enough, two of their potential options were in the UFL and sported better success rates than Bates: Andre Szmyt and Matthew McCrane.
