This Year's Puka Nacua, Eagles Issues, and Lions' Kickers (Oh My) | MAILBAG

Answering your questions as Week 1 of the 2024 NFL season nears!

We’ve made it.

Next week at this precise moment, there will have been at least one regular season NFL game in the rearview mirror, and 22 forthcoming weekends of football barreling toward us on the horizon.

This week’s mailbag features questions from Threads, where most of the questions will continue to be harvested each week for the Football Friday mailbag, and beginning next week an emphasis on questions from our exclusive subscriber chat!

Now, as we await toe meeting pigskin, for real, let’s tackle your questions!

What are your thoughts on the Detroit Lions’ kicker situation? (@morethanbrando on Threads)

General manager Brad Holmes has built a roster capable of mounting a legitimate Super Bowl charge this season, on the heels of a charmed run to the NFC Championship Game last fall.

There is a breadth and depth of young talent across Detroit’s roster, that is by and large homegrown, and ascending. On both sides of the football.

But, after a shaky training camp and preseason from Jake Bates, combined with an injury to Michael Badgley, no one would blame any Lions fan for having some PTSD to the pre-2023 history of Detroit Lions football.

But, how concerned should the Lions be about Bates’ inconsistency, and in an era where one score games determine the vast majority of outcomes each Sunday, how aggressive should Holmes and Detroit be trying to upgrade?

To get a sense for where things stand, I reached out to good friend and extraordinary Lions beat reporter Justin Rogers, who just joined the NFL Substack Revolution with the launch of the Detroit Football Network. Seriously, DFN is one of the best reads currently on substack and a mandatory subscription for any Lions fan.

Anyway, I asked Rogers how concerning the kicker situation is in the Motor City, because he’s obviously closer to the situation than I and can offer a unique perspective after watching every practice kick since the spring.

“The Lions' kicking situation has been a fascinating follow locally,” Rogers explains. “Not just this year, but since 2021, when the incoming regime understandably decided not to pay aging veteran Matt Prater the salary he deserved. Since then, the team has cycled through double-digit options and have yet to finish a season with the same kicker they've started with during the Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell era. 

“Entering this offseason, the safe money was on Michael Badgley maintaining the job, but he suffered an unfortunate season-ending injury in training camp. That left only UFL sensation Jake Bates on the roster, and curiously, the team never brought in more competition. This week, Holmes explained that they thought it better to get the young kicker maximum reps to accelerate his development. 

“Bates' power is unbelievable and not hypothetical. Remember, he made multiple kicks from 60 yards and beyond in the UFL, including a 64-yard game-winner in the season-opener. He similarly blasted home efforts from those distances during camp practices. 

“But there have been predictable inconsistencies that come with being a young kicker who didn't handle field goal duties in college. He's had some rocky days, including one where he missed seven field goals. And in the preseason, he countered makes from 53 and 55 yards with misses from 30 and 33, with the latter being a PAT. 

“The Lions love the upside. And going back to Prater, it's easy to forget the Falcons gave up on him because of early-career inconsistencies before he settled into a groove with Denver. You never want to be the team that gave up something great because of a lack of patience. 

“Of course, the question becomes; can the Lions afford patience at such an important spot while trying to contend for a Super Bowl? Every sign points to them pushing forward with Bates as the guy, but I'd anticipate a veteran being added to the practice squad at some point, just to provide a fallback option if things (read: Bates' kicks) go sideways.”

Given what is at stake for Detroit this year, combined with the fact that seven of the Lions’ games were decided by one score or less in 2023, and their record in those contests was just 4-3, having a reliable kicker matters.

I agree with Justin, that at minimum the Lions will likely look to add a veteran to the practice squad, but also cannot imagine Bates having that long of a leash if he shows any sign of accuracy concerns in big moments of tight games early in the season.

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Why is everyone confident the Eagles have fixed what broke last year? (@The_Tellurian on Threads)

The Eagles' second-half collapse—from a 10-1 perch atop the NFC with sights set on homefield advantage throughout the playoffs to getting their doors blown off in Tampa Bay to cap wildcard weekend—was enough to induce whiplash and panic across the Delaware Valley.

Philadelphia's fall sent aftershocks throughout the organization, including the firings of offensive coordinator Brian Johnson and defensive coordinator Matt Patricia. There was even talk at the highest levels of the franchise about hiring Bill Belichick to replace Nick Sirianni.

Losing six of their last seven games to close out the 2023 season by a margin of 189-99 also triggered a transformative offseason of targeted spending by general manager Howie Roseman. This included signing Saquon Barkley, Devin White, Bryce Huff, and eventually trading for Jahan Dotson, among other moves, in what was one of the more active offseasons of his tenure.

Conversations with sources around the NFL last winter left me with the impression that the Eagles' catastrophic late-season skid was largely due to players sensing panic from Sirianni. This came when the head coach benched defensive coordinator Sean Desai in favor of the immensely unpopular Matt Patricia, compounded by a season-long slog on offense without a tangible scheme or system.

As a new day dawns in South Philadelphia, it sounds like, according to multiple agents with clients on the Eagles' roster, along with those closest to the organization, that from both a personnel perspective and in terms of healing the locker room, the page has been turned.

“Their biggest problem last year was in the secondary and at linebacker,” a prominent agent with clients in Philadelphia tells me, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the situation freely.