With Chad Ryland and Nick Folk, Patriots' kicking situation ought to be interesting this week
BOSTON -- Compared to what would have been a joint practice session with the Tennessee Titans, the Patriots' practice on Tuesday afternoon outside Gillette Stadium was rather tame. Instead of a physical, hyper-competitive afternoon of work, the Patriots appeared to be a bit more focused on fine-tuning their offense than going full tilt.
Yet one rather interesting development played out when we weren't necessarily expecting it, and that's when it came time for rookie kicker Chad Ryland to take the field to try to drill some field goals. From the media vantage point at the far corner of the practice field, it was hard to tell the exact distance of the kicks. But it looked to be about 40 yards.
Ryland stepped up and ... missed the first one. A little left.
Kick No. 2 was up and on its way ... but missed. Wide left. A little wider left than the first kick.
Clearly, something was a little off, but Ryland got a third chance to make the kick. This one, however, was ugly.
The third kick never had a chance, starting out left and curling farther and farther away from the upright. Again, the angle isn't great from the far corner, but it looked like he missed this one by the width of another goalpost. It was real bad.
And that concluded the portion of practice dedicated to kicking. (Specialists spent much of the day on the upper fields working on their crafts away from the media's eye. This was the lone portion of full-team field goal practice.)
It was, at the very least, interesting. And it will make for an intriguing angle to watch when the Patriots conclude their preseason on Friday night in Nashville.
On the one hand, the Patriots have veteran Nick Folk. The 38-year-old has been literally automatic for New England from inside of 40 yards, going 60-for-60 on such kicks since joining the Patriots in 2019. The lone drawback with Folk has been a lack of power. He's gone 36-for-44 in the 40-49-yard range, and 12-for-17 on 50-plus-yard kicks. (He has, oddly, missed a fair share of PATs, going 104-for-115 on extra points over the last three seasons.)
But the man set an NFL record by hitting 57 straight field goals under 50 yards, a record he stretched to 64 before finally missing. What he lacks in power, he makes up for in reliability.
Ryland is certainly not lacking in leg strength, that's for sure. The accuracy and the ability to handle the pressure of kicking in the NFL have to be proven.
Thus far in the preseason, the opportunities have been few and far between.
The Patriots have attempted just one field goal, and Folk took care of that one by successfully hitting a 44-yarder against Houston.
A strip-sack of Mac Jones in Green Bay took away one potential scoring opportunity for New England, and the Patriots didn't get another field goal opportunity before that game was cut short early.
As far as PATs go, Folk has gone 2-for-2, and Ryland is 1-for-1 on his lone live kick of the preseason.
For head coach Bill Belichick, special teams coordinator Cam Achord and assistant head coach-but-everyone-knows-he's-really-running-special-teams coach Joe Judge, there hasn't been much in the way of game action to get a feel for what Ryland can do.
Now, obviously, the Patriots held Ryland in rather high regard when they not only traded up but traded up with the New York Jets to get him at No. 112 overall in the fourth round. Belichick isn't often in the business of giving draft picks to the Jets, but he did it in order to get this young kicker. Ryland went 49-for-58 on field goals and 104-for-106 on PATs over the last three years at Eastern Michigan (2020-21) and Maryland (2022). That led to him being one of just three kickers to get drafted. (Jake Moody from Michigan went to the 49ers at No. 99, Auburn's Anders Carlson went to Green Bay in the sixth round at No. 207.)
Given all of that, one would assume that his spot on the roster would essentially be a formality. Yet as we know, nothing in the NFL is given, even if significant draft capital (for a kicker) was expended to bring a player aboard.
(Kickoff duties do play a factor in this consideration, as Folk doesn't really have the leg to be the regular option for that role. He did kick a touchback in one of his two opportunities this preseason, but Ryland has carried the bulk of that task this preseason with five kickoffs.)
There remains a possibility that whoever "wins" the summer competition may not be banished from New England forever. Books could be written with all of the practice squad maneuvering Belichick has done with kickers over the past several years, so a creative solution could come into play. At the same time, it feels unlikely that other teams wouldn't come to poach a reliable kicker like Folk if he were available, so it's not as simple as stashing both players and utilizing them as needed.
The Patriots know what they have in Folk. They might think they know what they could have in Ryland, but they've yet to really see it in (preseason) game action. Keep that in mind when the Patriots take the field Friday night in Nashville, because for a team that won't stand among the league leaders in points scored this season, every single scoring opportunity is going to be an important one.
Tune in to Friday night's Patriots-Titans preseason game on WBZ-TV -- your television home for the New England Patriots. Pregame coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. with Patriots GameDay, with full analysis after the game on Patriots 5th Quarter. You can also tune in to McCourty "Twincast" streaming on WBZ.com!
