NFL kickers are famously known for their legs, but they must have another trait: The ability to perform with all eyes on them and the game on the line.
Kickers must be able to come through in hostile environments and situations, and nail a kick to win the game.
New Detroit Lions kicker Jake Bates has quickly shown he can do that in a short amount of time in professional football.
"He does have clutch in him, and that's a huge thing for a kicker," Michigan Panthers head coach Mike Nolan told the Free Press on Thursday. "Because, you know, kickers get evaluated on the game winner. A lot of guys kick at 60, or 70, yards, but, I mean, you got to flip a coin on whether it's going to go through the uprights. That's not the case with Jake."
Bates, a 25-year-old who popped onto the radar after his game-winning 64-yard field goal with the Panthers in their United Football League season opener in March at Ford Field, never had a true desire to play football until his senior of high school.
The kick was his first attempt since high school. Bates was a soccer player at Tomball (Texas) High School, where he received a scholarship to play soccer for Central Arkansas (UCA). He didn't join the football team — to play with his friends — until his senior year of high school.
"I played a little bit my senior year," Bates told the Free Press on Sunday at the Lions' practice facility in Allen Park. "I played like, just district. So I didn't play the first couple games, and I committed to UCA for soccer. And so I wanted to play football just for my senior year with my friends. So I did that. But I didn't start to take it like seriously or anything, until like 2021, or so, and then I got to walk-on in Texas State, and then that led to Arkansas and so on so forth."
[ Lions fans: Get ready for this season by reliving the team's epic 2023 season with a new book from the Free Press, "From Grit to Glory." Order now! ]
After playing soccer at UCA for two seasons, Bates was done with that sport. He started working out with one of his best friends and former high school teammates, Austin Hudgens, who was training to play football for TCU as a walk-on. Hudgens started over Bates as the high school kicker at Tomball.
"I would just kick with him when I was home for Christmas break or whatever," Bates said. "Then I was done with soccer, and I didn't want to be done with sports. So I was like, 'What can I do?' And kind of kicking was the only thing. So then I started trying to take it serious and actually training at it."
Bates' football college career began when he walked on at Texas State, taking on kickoff duties for two seasons.
He notched 32 touchbacks on 60 kickoffs in 2020, and an average of 61.6 yards per kickoff before returns. The following season, in 2021, he averaged 62.8 yards per kickoff in 12 games, with 35 touchbacks on 53 kickoffs.
But Bates was only doing half the job, having lost the starting kicking battle to Seth Keller, and never attempted a field goal for the Bobcats.
Bates decided to transfer to Arkansas, where he entered another situation with an already-established kicker: Cam Little was coming off a freshman All-American season in 2021. (He later was selected in the sixth round of the 2024 NFL draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars.)
"There's just no reason to switch it up," Bates said.
He earned first-team All-SEC honors as a kickoff specialist for the Razorbacks, finishing third in the nation with 64 touchbacks.
Although Bates never attempted a field goal, he signed as a undrafted free agent in April 2023 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He soon was cut, then joined the Houston Texans that July. He went 2-for-3 on extra-point kicks in his exhibition debut, but was cut in August, after 13 days with the Texans.
Still, he looked at the experience as growth.
"I think I had to grow a lot mentally. And I think I did," Bates said. "They helped me with that, you know, first year out of college, like, I had a lot of growing to do, so that was probably the biggest thing that I needed to change."
Bates signed with the UFL's Panthers on Dec. 25.
"We wanted to go get a strong-leg kicker, just because the league kind of demands that with our kickoff rules," Nolan said. "So we knew we had a very strong leg, and that was one of the reasons we, you know, took the chance on him."
Going into Week 1, Nolan watched Bates kick field goals in practice from about 65 yards, drilling it multiple times. Nolan walked up to him and said, "If we need one at the end of the game, we're going to go for the long one."
Fast forward to the end of their game March 30 at Ford Field against the St. Louis Battlehawks. Trailing 16-15 with 8 seconds left on the clock, the Panthers called on Bates to kick a 64-yarder.
"The situation came up and, and obviously you can't predict it, but, we already kind of knew what we were going to do," Nolan said about the decision to allow Bates to attempt the kick, just 2 yards short of where Baltimore's Justin Tucker made an NFL record 66-yarder to beat the Lions in 2021.
Bates nailed the 64-yard kick, twice — St. Louis called timeout to ice him — giving the Panthers the stunning victory.
64 YARDS FOR THE WIN 😱
JAKE BATES WITH A BOOT FOR @USFLPANTHERS pic.twitter.com/nx25x1PEIK— United Football League (@TheUFL) March 30, 2024
"I thought I could (do it)," Bates said. "I was, confident it would get there. I don't know if we ever backed it up that far previous to that, I guess they just had trust that it would get there. And luckily, it did."
"Jake's got some clutch in him, and that's huge," Nolan said. "Because a lot of guys can do it, but when it comes down to clutch, it's just not the same for them. And thus far, he's already shown that he's a good clutch kicker with as probably as good a distance as anybody that's ever kicked."
The kick gathered buzz around the young kicker, and many predicted he would not be in the UFL for long.
He made 17 of 22 field goals for the Panthers in the 10-game regular season, then hit four of six attempts during the postseason.
"It was great, honestly," Bates said. "The practices were really good, like it was ran really professionally. Mike Nolan, our head coach was, a pro, and he did it. He did everything well, and I had a great time. It was a great experience. I'm super thankful for it, and that's always gonna be a part of my story."
Bates gathered interest from NFL teams; after the UFL season, he visited with the Lions, Green Bay Packers and Washington Commanders before deciding to sign with Detroit.
Detroit "felt like home," he said, complimenting the Lions' kicking operation with long snappers Scott Daly and Hogan Hatten, special teams coach Dave Fipp and head coach Dan Campbell.
"I couldn't ask for anything better," Bates said.
Bates entered Lions training camp in competition with incumbent kicker Michael Badgley, but Badgley quickly went down with a season-ending injury, leaving Bates as the sole kicker on the roster.
In the Lions' first preseason game last week, on the road outdoors against the New York Giants, Bates nailed a 53-yard field goal in wet and windy conditions.
Jake Bates from 53 yards gets the @Lions on the board first.
— NFL (@NFL) August 8, 2024
📱: Stream #DETvsNYG on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/f2CBLXQm5Z
"I have a job to do, no matter the distance and circumstance," Bates said. "That's what I tried to do. I was glad I was able to put three points up on the board."
Bates has impressed throughout training camp, nailing a 64-yarder to end practice Sunday and staying consistent with his distance and the accuracy.
There've been some rough patches in practice, but he remains the team's lone kicker.
Jake Bates ends practice with a 64-yard 💣 pic.twitter.com/9jZjIi36Xa
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) August 11, 2024
Bates' story and winding route to the NFL is unique, but he remains humble.
"I try not to, like, dwell on it too much," Bates said. "I try to be pretty present. But I think it's just such a story of the way the Lord works and how faithful he is. He has opened so many doors, just closed a lot of doors. But, you know, he's never left my side. I think that's something that I try to hammer home with my story. It's just such a story of a good father. And that's what I'm here to do spread his name and spread his glory."
-1715822579-q80.webp "Cowboys Reveal Plan for ‘Unproven’ Trey Lance Entering 2024")
