The New England Patriots are going through a transition on special teams replacing one of the NFL’s best kickers.
Head coach Bill Belichick commented on the situation and praised the Memphis alum for his fantastic work thus far as his placekicker.
“Through the years, I have been lucky,” Belichick told reporters this morning. “We have had a lot of stability, there’s no doubt about that. But, look, sometimes things happen, and you have to make changes, just like any other position, and you do the best you can.”
He then gave the Patriots point leader the utmost praise one can receive, but still says the team needs to move forward with the next man up.
“Steve Gostkowski’s one of the greatest kickers of all time,” Belichick said about his kicker. “He’s been great for this franchise. Unfortunately, he’s not available, so we’ll move on.”
With the team moving forward, NESN reporter Zach Kox tweeted a video of the new kickers in Patriots uniforms for the first time.
Say hello to the Patriots’ new kickers: Mike Nugent (No. 2) and Younghoe Koo (No. 8). pic.twitter.com/ovhAYTUxqf
— Zack Cox (@ZackCoxNESN) October 4, 2019
Belichick talked the workout he put former Cincinnati Bengal Mike Nugent through. Ultimately however, the 37-year old’s experience as well as his great tryout paid dividends in the decision to sign him.
“The past has some relevance, too. It’s a combination,” Belichick said. “But it would be hard to sign somebody in that position that didn’t kick well in a workout. There would have to be a lot of other things in place that would override that, I would think.”
In addition to signing Nugent, the Patriots signed 25-year-old kicker Younghoe Koo to the practice squad as a backup plan at the position. Belichick’s decision to sign Koo was his practice squad eligibility that gave the coach the ability to watch him more closely in rehearsals.
“He’s a player we wanted to look at that’s practice squad eligible,” Belichick told reporters. “There’s a lot of players we want to look at, but they’re not eligible for the practice squad. You have to put them on the roster if you want to see them. So this gives us a chance to see (Koo) in a practice squad situation. We’ll see how it goes. He doesn’t have a lot of experience.”
