For so long in the history of the Detroit Lions, having a reliable kicker was almost an afterthought. For many of those years, there were often bigger fish to fry. Kickers like Jason Hanson and Matt Prater were the epitome of consistency, and you never know how good you have it until you have to do without it.
For the past few years, after a lot of kickers walked through the doors in Allen Park, but the Lions may have found their guy in Jake Bates. Kyle Meinke of MLive has more on where he believes Bates stands thus far through the preseason.
Overall, Bates had a good day during the Lions’ Week 2 preseason win over the Kansas City Chiefs. He did miss one extra point, but went four-of-four on field goal attempts, including a 55-yard bomb, as well as the game-winner as time expired.
“I was fired up,” coach Dan Campbell said of Bates’ performance against the Chiefs. “I needed to see that. Quite frankly, I felt like he would drill that. It’s little things. You’ve got to be careful, but it’s like, man, we had this fowling competition the other day, right? And he’s in the championship, and he makes two critical throws in crunch time. It’s like, well, that’s not kicking. And yet there’s something about this kid that’s intriguing. He’s got a little bit of confidence to him. He’s got a little bit of something.”
You can read the entire story from Meinke right here.
Will Jake Bates be the Lions' kicker when the season opens against L.A.? https://t.co/B21hDhfvM5
— kyle meinke (@kmeinke) August 18, 2024
And now, onto the rest of today’s notes:
- Lions’ rookie running back Sione Vaki continues to impress.
Let's goooo @sione_vaki! pic.twitter.com/V2byzXqmgo
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) August 18, 2024
- I think kick coverage is going to be a bigger story this year than people are thinking.
NFL has had two kickoff returns of 50+ yards this weekend: Patriots' David Wallis had a 53-yarder and Jets' Brandon Codrington had a 63. Chiefs got a takeaway on kickoff return, recovering a Lions fumble.
— Greg Auman (@gregauman) August 18, 2024
- Nathan Jahnke of Pro Football Focus shares his thoughts on the Lions’ competition at wide receiver as well as several other fantasy football related topics from around the league.
- Vaki is one of those athletes that looks so fluid and natural with the ball in his hands.
All of @sione_vaki's catches from Saturday's win in KC! pic.twitter.com/4HmqmavKYS
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) August 18, 2024
