The Detroit Lions are entering the 2024 season with a kicker who has never attempted or made a field goal during an NFL regular season game.
Jake Bates has intrigued the Lions' front office and coaching staff since he showcased his strong leg all throughout the Michigan Panthers UFL season.
Brad Holmes indicated the Lions are happy with Bates' mindset and he feels there is a level of 'excitement' not exactly knowing what the 23-year-old can accomplish.
“Obviously we all know the ability that he has," said Holmes. "He’s got a big leg and, look, we get intrigued by some of the – as much as humans, we all crave certainty, we crave everything being coherent and all that, but there’s excitement about the unknown.
"We don’t know what – I don’t know what tomorrow’s going to bring. I don’t know what’s going to happen in, I don’t even have my watch on. I don’t even know what’s going to happen in the next few hours," Holmes continued. "We try to prepare and do everything we can, but that’s really the intrigue."
By all accounts, the former Panthers kicker has the ability to bounce back from missed kicks and to remain focused on the next opportunity.
In his first preseason in Motown, Bates made six of seven field goal attempts and three of four extra point tries.
"I know that one thing about kickers is you have to be wired a certain way and we learned early on that he’s wired right, and I thought that that’s one of the smartest moves that we did make is, when we had (Michael) Badgley go down and we did not bring another kicker in," said Holmes. "It wasn’t a whole lot available because when Badge got his injury, every team in the League had two or three kickers on their roster, so we brought a handful of guys in to work out, but we just said, ‘Look, let’s just let this kid get every single rep possible.’ And he did get better and he’s continuing to get better."
Despite Bates' strong leg, Holmes indicated the team likely could sign a kicker with a little more experience to the practice squad.
In a critical season, having a kicker who is inexperienced is risky, but the Lions feel Bates has earned the right to start the season as the team's placekicker.
"The main thing, regardless of what you say about accuracy and all that kind of stuff, if he does miss one, it doesn’t affect him, it doesn’t bother him," Holmes said. "And that was a good trait that Badgley has as well, so being that he has that, and he has the physical component and he’s gotten these reps in training camp, then let’s just see how far it can go. And look, we’ll still look at adding another kicker to the practice squad. Guy that had a little bit more experience. But yeah, I think he's earned it to give it a shot.”
