The Detroit Lions have signed 10 kickers over the last two years, but don’t try telling special teams coordinator Dave Fipp something is wrong with their process.
Last week, Sam Ficken became the 10th kicker the Detroit Lions have carried on their active roster or practice squad over the last two years since Matt Prater departed in free agency. Rather than pay Prater his market value, when he wanted to finish his career in Detroit, they decided to save payroll at the dawn of a rebuild. Nothing wrong with the notion of not paying a kicker in that situation, as a practical matter.
To say the kicking situation has cost the Lions a few wins over the last 22 games is not a stretch, as much as that matters at this point in their building process. Injuries have been in the mix at times.
But don’t try telling special teams coordinator Dave Fipp there’s been something wrong with the process to find a competent kicker.
To be fair, a kicker who is available into a season probably isn’t that good and that’s what the Lions have had to pick from sometimes.
Fipp spoke to the media on Thursday.
Dave Fipp doesn’t see anything wrong with Lions’ process to find a kicker
Via 97.1 The Ticket:
"I think saying that there’s been 10 kickers in here makes it sound worse than it is.”"
Oh really? Fipp went on.
"Is this an ideal situation to be in? Obviously not, but such is life,” Fipp said Thursday. “It’s not like we really controlled any of it. Personally, I think we’ve made the exact right call the whole way. Would we like a different outcome? Oh yeah, we would like to hit on the next All-Pro kicker, but it doesn’t always turn out that way."
I think we’ve made the exact right call the whole way.
With the signing of Ficken, from this corner I wondered about former Colts kicker Rodrigo Blankenship. He was cut by Indianapolis after a rough Week 1, and he had not signed anywhere. He did have a hip injury last season, and there’s always the question of asking price to sign any player.
Prater is now kicking for the Arizona Cardinals, and a hip injury is currently sidelining him. So where did Blankenship land this week? He has been elevated to the active roster for Arizona’s game Thursday night.
Cardinals signed former Colts’ K Rodrigo Blankenship to their practice squad.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 18, 2022
Michael Badgley wasn’t trusted by the Lions coaching staff in Week 5, even if it meant an attempt to avoid a deflating shutout, and Ficken hasn’t been good in small samples of previous work. Blankenship was available, and apparently healthy enough for the Cardinals to sign him a week later, but he was not even brought to Allen Park for a tryout.
Ultimately, we’re talking about kickers in regard to a 1-4 team with some bigger issues. But when missed kicks lose games and lack of trust in who is on the roster to do the kicking drives poor game management decisions, who the kicker is starts to matter. The Lions have botched the situation at nearly every turn lately, even if Fipp can’t admit it.