Nick Folk is Traded as the Era of the Next Great Patriots Kicker Chad Ryland Begins

It's by no means an insight to say that place kickers come and go like the tides. Hired to be fired, and all that. It's a position that generally speaking puts the "journey" in journeyman. 

Just not in New England. The Patriots have had a proud tradition of finding great kickers as rookies and keeping them around forever. And through multiple trips to the Super Bowl. Leave us never forget that they had a rookie kicker in 1996, the year Drew Bledsoe led them to the Super Bowl against Green Bay. He turned out to be nothing less than the author of not one but two Super Bowl winning field goals, and those weren't even his greatest kicks. He was eventually replaced by Stephen Gostkowski. Not only a close, personal friend I met like three times:

… but someone who arguably put up better numbers over the course of his New England career than Vinatieri. 

But I'm not here to debate that point. Just to draw attention to the fact that the Pats had just those two kickers from 1996 until 2019. Even at a position where long careers are not unheard of, going 23 years with just two starters is practically unheard of. And those were the mighty cleats that Nick Folk had to step into. And did so surprisingly well, all things considered:

The best comp I can come up with for Folk's arrival in 2019 after Gostkowski's New England career was coming to an end due to chronic injury is 2013 Koji Uehara. The Red Sox went through three different closers, none of whom could be trusted with a lead. Until Uehara. Who, despite the fact he couldn't dent the rear panel of a car with his best fastball, was practically unhittable, settled down a huge weakness that was killing the team, and won them a World Series. 

Likewise, Folk was no a power kicker, and was the Pats fourth option at K when they saved him from unemployment in 2019. Prior to his arrival, the previous three had combined to miss two field goals from inside of 40 and an unthinkable SIX extra points. Without Folk Koji-ing the kicking game, that team might not have even made the playoffs. And he maintained that consistency for his next three full seasons. 

But that's all in the past. The future now belongs to Chad Ryland:

A five year starter in college. With a 60% success rate on kicks over 50 yards. But who struggled with accuracy from the wider college hash marks, missed 5-of-9 during one stretch last year, and who missed a few in the media portions of training camp practices. And now is being trusted with the unparalleled legacy forged by Vinatieri and Gostkowski. 

The Patriots special teams were uncharacteristically abysmal last year on a team that invests more into those units than any in football. And to improve the situation, Belichick invested even further, using draft picks on Ryland and punter Bryce Baringer. No pressure or anything, but they're about to become two of the most important rookies in the NFL.

P.S. My sincerest thanks to all of you who made it all the end to a blog about kickers. People have started getting laid off around here and I'm feeling even more pressure than Ryland and Baringer.