The Detroit Lions are holding a kicking competition during this training camp. At the last Lions practice session, the man making the most direct decision on the victor got a chance to speak with the media.
Lions special teams coordinator Dave Fipp held a press conference and fielded several questions about the battle between John Parker Romo and Riley Patterson. Fipp, a wily veteran coach, concealed his hand nicely.
“I’m excited about both these guys,” Fipp said before giving due credit to each combatant.
“We have two guys, one who has a lot of talent, leg talent in Romo. So, he has a lot of leg talent, and maybe he needs a little bit more development, but we feel like he’s done a nice job,” Fipp said about the former XFL star.
On Patterson, who the team traded for earlier this offseason and who has some history with the team, Fipp had this to say,
“…the truth is he’s really coming along, and his leg strength’s really increased. He looks really good in the training camp, so I’m really excited about him, and I think sometimes with young players you see that where they bounce around a bit for the first couple years, and then all of a sudden they start to grab ahold of something there. So hopefully, he does that for us, but yeah, I’m encouraged.
No real advantage has developed in the field goal competitions thus far. Romo definitely has the stronger leg, but he’s missed more shorter kicks than Patterson. The latter’s reliable range on field goals barely gets to 50 yards, but he’s been a little better than Romo in the 30-to-45 range.
With that, how much could kickoffs factor into the decision? I asked Fipp about that. He gave a lengthy answer that also noted that an inability to kick off well was one primary reason why the Lions got rid of incumbent kicker Michael Badgley last month.
“The more these guys can do, obviously the better, so how important is the kickoff? I think, personally, it’s important I think a kicker in the National Football League should be able to kickoff at a high level,” Fipp stated. “And then if your punter is fortunate to be able to do that too, you can pick the best one on game day, but someone can say that the kicker position, kicking off isn’t as important now maybe with this fair catch rule and all that, but I would say that if the kicker’s not great at kicking off, they’re not going to fair catch at all, they’re going to be returning it right back at you, so it’s important that you’re good enough.”
Patterson had a touchback rate on kickoffs of 50 percent in 2022 while kicking for the Jaguars and was at 63 percent during his college career. Romo posted a touchback rate of 59 percent in college. During Lions practices, Romo has been superior at booming the ball out of the end zone, though Patterson has demonstrated better control and touch on designed shorter kickoffs.
