2026 has been far from smooth for the Detroit Lions, but it could be even worse if not for kicker Jake Bates. At 2-2, the Lions have won their games by a combined eight points. Even one missed kick could have cost them a game, but Bates has been perfect, and the Lions might need it to continue.
Only 12 kickers enter week five with 100% accuracy, and Bates is 21-for-21 including field goals and extra points. Brandon Aubrey of the Cowboys is the only kicker with more kicks made (22), although he has missed three field goals and one extra point.
FanSided debuted a new kicking metric leading into this season called Kick Value Added (KVA), as a way to measure how a kicker adds or costs value for a team. Instead of every make or miss being considered the same, KVA calculates the difference between shanking a chip shot and missing from long range.
Jake Bates has been a knight in shining armor for the Lions
For KVA, a positive number means a kicker adds value, and a negative number means the opposite. A zero is considered average. Bates is among the best in the NFL through week four, as he ranks tenth in KVA at 2.62. His average make for 2026 is 35.4 yards, which is relatively low, thanks to the Lions offense being able to move the ball.
Out of every kicker in the top ten of KVA, only four are on teams with a winning record. When a team is in close games seemingly every week like the Lions, a consistent kicker comes in handy. Detroit needs to score as many points as possible until its defense figures things out, and Bates is a large part of it.
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It's especially nice to see Bates succeeding given his down year last season. In 2025, Bates missed a career-high seven field goals, and he went just 4-for-9 on kicks of at least 50 yards. His 79.4 field goal percentage ranked No. 32 out of 39 kickers.
Luckily for the Lions, an elite kicker isn't needed to win the super bowl, as proved by Jason Myers with the Seattle Seahawks last season. Myers ranked No. 22 with a field goal percentage of 85.4. However, since the Lions need points galore to win any given game, Bates needs to stay as close to perfect as possible.
The Lions travel to Arizona to play the Cardinals on Sunday (4:25 p.m. ET kickoff), and the retractable roof at State Farm Stadium could help Bates stay unblemished.
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