Falcons to turn up the heat on Pro Bowl kicker Younghoe Koo this season
Falcons to turn up the heat on Pro Bowl kicker Younghoe Koo this season Youn
The Atlanta Falcons fell apart over the second half of the 2024 season, and it wasn't solely due to quarterback Kirk Cousins' decline in play. There were other factors, including missed kicks, poor clock management and defensive lapses that caused the team to finish 8-9 after a 6-3 start.
Falcons kicker Younghoe Koo had his worst year since joining the team in 2019. The former Pro Bowler converted just 73.5 percent of his field goal attempts last season and suffered a hip injury which caused him to miss the final three games.
Koo's injury may have factored into his drop in accuracy, but he still converted on all 26 of his extra points attempts and recorded a career-long 58-yard field goal.
While it's fair to assume the 30-year-old will bounce back in 2025, the Falcons aren't going to hand Koo the starting job this season. The team signed German-born kicker Lenny Krieg -- a converted soccer player who impressed at the scouting combine -- to a three-year deal back in March.
On Wednesday, Falcons special teams coach Marquice Williams was asked about the kicker situation going into 2025. As reported by ESPN's Marc Raimondi, the team will have Koo compete with Krieg for the starting kicker job this season.
Krieg obviously lacks experience in the NFL and will be a heavy underdog in the kicking competition. However, Koo took veteran Matt Bryant's job midway through the 2019 season, so we've seen this type of thing happen before.
Back then, Koo was a relatively unproven 25-year-old out of Georgia Southern. He converted on at least 86.5 percent of his field goal attempts during his first four seasons in Atlanta and never missed more than five kicks in a single year prior to 2024.
We'll have to wait and see how No. 7 bounces back after a full offseason to recover from his hip injury.
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