2. Andre Szmyt
Szmyt also kicked in the UFL this year, for the St. Louis Battlehawks. He was the most accurate kicker in the league, going 20-for-22 on field goals (including the playoffs), with one miss from 40-49 yards out, one miss from 50-plus and a long of 61 yards,
Szmyt spent time with the Chicago Bears in 2023 training camp, similar to how Bates did with the Houston Texans. But Szmyt actually kicked field goals in college, and he won the Lou Groza Award (given to the best kicker in the country) as a freshman in 2018.
The Lions may want to lean toward someone of similar ilk to Badgley, in sheer terms of having kicked in an NFL regular season game. But Szmyt is an interesting available option, he had a college track record of kicking (and a darn good one) and he was more accurate than Bates during the entirety of the 2024 UFL season.
Confirmation will ideally come from a more reputable source than ML Football, but they are reporting Szmyt will have a workout with the Lions after Badgley's injury.
🚨NEWS: UFL standout kicker Andre Szmyt will work out for the Detroit #Lions, league sources exclusively tell @_MLFootball.
— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) July 26, 2024
Szmyt has an extremely powerful leg, and hit four 60+ yard field goals this season.
Detroit wants to add a kicker after Michael Badgley’s injury. pic.twitter.com/JmPZDYHo53
The Detroit Lions will workout former Syracuse and UFL kicker Andre Szmyt following the injury to Michael Badgley per @_MLFootball #OnePride pic.twitter.com/lvIyRhgi0D
— Woodward Sports Network (@woodwardsports) July 26, 2024
Update: Mike Payton of AtoZ Sports reported Szmyt has worked out for the Lions.
A source tells myself and @AtoZSportsNFL that top UFL kicker Andre Szmyt has worked out for the Detroit Lions
— Mike Payton (@AtoZ_Payton) July 26, 2024
We wrote about him just a couple hours ago. You can read that below.
🔗#onepride 👇 pic.twitter.com/rMwJwe6Mbp
1. Randy Bullock
A late preseason cut back in 2021, Bullock was part of the Lions' initial kicker carousel under the Brad Holmes-Dan Campbell regime. He landed with the Tennessee Titans, and had a nice season with them that year (26-for-31 in field goals, 42-for-45 on extra points). He also kicked for the Titans in 2022, making 17 of 20 field goals and all 28 of his extra points over 15 games.
The Titans cut Bullock in February of 2023. The New York Giants signed him to their practice squad in November after losing Graham Gano to an injury, and he kicked in six games for them last season (5-for-6 on field goals, 10-for-10 on extra points) before landing on IR with a hamstring injury.
Bullock is a littler older (34), and that leg injury last season could also be a factor in why he's still available. But the Titans, and the Bengals before them prior to his offseason stint with the Lions. seem to have replaced him with a younger cheaper option over having issues with his performance.
It would not be surprising to eventually find out that Bullock was one of the kickers the Lions had in for the workout when the severity of Badgley's injury was official. Signing him is of course another matter, but he should be on their radar.