Falcons’ Koo: ‘Not sugarcoating it; it was the worst season of my life’
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez/AJC
FLOWERY BRANCH — Falcons kicker Younghoe Koo is a straight shooter.
He didn’t mince any words when talking about how he played last season.
“Not sugarcoating it; it was the worst season of my life,” said Koo, the former Pro Bowl kicker who played at Georgia Southern.
Koo missed nine field goals, including two that were blocked, last season, and he’s in a competition in training camp to retain his job. The Falcons signed kicker Lenny Krieg to compete with Koo.
During his 2020 Pro Bowl season, Koo made a league-best 37 field goals on 39 attempts. Last season, Koo made 25 of 34 field-goal attempts before he was placed on injured reserve because of a hip injury.
Koo missed five kicks in both 2022 and ’23. So, there is a pattern.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Koo’s injury did not require offseason surgery.
“Yeah, it was not too long of a recovery process,” Koo said. “It was about a month or so after the injection, I had to shut it down and then kind of build back up.”
Koo returned to his normal offseason workouts.
“It wasn’t really anything different from other offseasons, time-wise,” Koo said. “I was able to get into my regular offseason routine pretty quickly. So, it was pretty good.”
Falcons coach Raheem Morris is a strong Koo supporter. Morris was with the team when Koo came on to replace Matt Bryant back in 2019. He was the kicker when Morris was the interim head coach for 11 games in the 2020 season.
“I am really excited to see Younghoe have a bounce-back year and really excited to watch him come back,” Morris said. “I’ve got so much confidence in Younghoe because I started with him. I’ve got so much confidence in Younghoe because I gave him his first opportunity. So, I’ve seen him battle through adversity. I’ve seen him fight back.”
Credit: AP
After the 2020 season, Morris was not retained. Three seasons later, he returned as the head coach.
“I’ve seen him find a way to make it work,” Morris said. “Just the personality of the guy, the toughness, the mental toughness and the character. I’ve got a lot of confidence that he’ll be able to do it.”
Krieg, a native of Berlin, Germany, played in the European League of Football with the Stuttgart Surge. In 24 games over the past two seasons, he made 19 of 26 field-goal attempts, with a long of 52 yards. He also made 101 of 126 extra-point attempts.
“It’s not my first time having a competition,” Koo said. “I was on the other side of that my rookie year (with the Chargers). You are always competing, whether if somebody is physically here or not. (There’s) only 32 jobs, so you always have a target on your back in a way.”
Koo kicked in four games for the Chargers in 2017, but he was eventually released. He was out of the league during the 2018 season, waiting for an opportunity while practicing separately.
“You have to come out here and prove yourself day in and day out,” Koo said. “So, whether somebody’s here physically or not, I’m always knowing that it’s a competition. I have to be at my best at this level.”
Koo believes that he’s fully recovered and ready to return to form.
“I’m ready to get back to what I know that I’m capable of, being the best in the league,” Koo said. “I know that I can do that. Just going back to the process of what I do. I’ll get back to that for sure.”
Koo appreciates the support from Morris and special teams coordinator Marquice Williams.
“It’s huge, having that support system from the coaches and the teammates,” Koo said. “It means the world. That makes you want to go that much harder, work harder and make it right for those guys just as much for yourself.”
Koo plans to keep the same mental approach to kicking that made him successful.
“I always go back to just staying neutral,” Koo said. “It’s like good or bad. If I have to, I bring it down to like zooming in on one week. If I have a great game, on Monday is the start of the workweek and we’ve got another game coming up. If we have a bad game, we’ve got Monday coming up. We’ve got the next game. It’s the same thing, same idea that I carry.”
Koo plans to take a similar approach to moving on from the worst season of his life.
“If have a great season, cool,” Koo said. “Move on. Learn from it. Good or bad. It was cool.”
About the Author
Honored by the Pro Football Hall of Fame in recognition of his "long and distinguished reporting in the field of pro football," D. Orlando Ledbetter, Esq. has covered the NFL 28 seasons. A graduate of Howard University, he's a winner of Georgia Sportswriter of the Year and three Associated Press Sports Editor awards.
