Falcons to bring in competition for kicker Younghoe Koo
FLOWERY BRANCH — Falcons kicker Younghoe Koo missed a 44-yard field-goal attempt late in the team’s 23-20 loss to the Buccaneers on Sunday.
He did not speak to media members after the game. His kick would have forced overtime.
“It’s tough, obviously, but as always, I just got to get back to work,” a somber Koo said Monday at the team’s facilities. “I’m definitely frustrated. Had a great offseason, great (training) camp. Two weeks leading into the Week One, I felt great. I still do. Just a couple things that I got to adjust better on the go, like during the game. I’ve got to move on. That’s really all you can do.”
The Falcons plan to bring in competition for Koo.
“We have to go out there and look,” Falcons coach Raheem Morris said Monday. “We’ve got to go out there and bring in people to compete. We’ll do that accordingly like we always do. ... It definitely creates more of a sense of urgency.”
Koo made the 44-yarder after the Bucs called timeout. After the timeout, he tried again, and the ball went wide right.
“Throughout the game with that turf, I was kind of hitting the ground a little bit,” Koo said. “So, I tried to make an adjustment, which I have done multiple times. Just made the wrong kind of adjustment at that time. I know what to do, but it’s just frustrating because I know better than that. I just got to do a better job there.”
Koo missed nine field-goal attempts last season, but two of them were blocked. Koo suspected that the team may bring in some competition.
“It’s just going to …. that’s above me,” Koo said. “I’m just going to go out there and try to put the work in and see where it goes.”
Koo, after starring at Georgia Southern, broke into the NFL in 2017 with the Chargers. He has been with the Falcons since 2019. He has made 181 of 211 field-goal attempts (85.8%), with a long of 58 yards.
“In the league, it comes down to a kick more often than not, with it being a competitive league,” Koo said. “It comes down to really a one-possession game most of the time. Knowing how valuable those kicks are, I mean, every point really matters in this league. We’ve been in this situation so many times, and the frustration just came out. I was disappointed in myself. ... I know I’m better than that.”
Earlier in the game, Koo’s 36-yard field goal hit the uprights but went in.
“On top of that, letting the guys down,” Koo said. “Unfortunately, we’ve been having this conversation just more than I would like to. I’m just trying to move on. That one hurt a little bit, being the first (game). For the team that we have, we wanted to start strong, and for it to end that way, obviously frustration on myself more than anything.”
Most of the Falcons supported Koo after the game.
“I mean, it’s great to have the team that we have that has your back, and we don’t really point fingers or anything like that,” Koo said. “Obviously, I got to do better. Our offense did a great job getting us an opportunity there. We got to see it through. It can’t come down to that at the end of the game like that.”
Koo appreciated the support of his teammates.
“It means the world to me knowing the guys have my back,” Koo said. “We have each other’s backs, but at the end of the day, I’ve got to do my job to help this team win games.”
Koo believes he can bounce back from the miss.
“There’s a lot of football left,” Koo said. “Mentally, I don’t think I’m in a position or anything I can’t handle. I feel great and confident as ever. That’s not really my thing to get down like that. I’m just going to go out swinging and be the best version of myself that I know I can be. I’m just going to do that, starting with practice. Then come Sunday, I’m going to do the same thing.”
Koo said he’ll try to re-create the moment of his missed kick to see if he can learn something from it.
“No, obviously there are things that you can work on from that,” Koo said. “You can learn from that. So, it’s not like, oh, as if nothing happened and you just move on. I would definitely go (watch videotape), ‘OK, this is what I did. Let me see why I did that.’ Make sure that doesn’t happen again.
“Just kind of cross those boxes as I troubleshoot through the list. So that next time those things come up, I can troubleshoot better and come up with a better solution right at that moment.”
Dustin Hopkins, Greg “The Leg” Zuerlein, Eddy Pineiro, Michael Badgley, Matt McCrane, Greg Joseph, Austin Seibert, Zane Gonzalez, and Cade York are some of the kickers available as free agents, according to overthecap.com.
Also, there are kickers, including the Falcons’ Lenny Krieg, on practice squads around the league.
“We’ll work out some veterans,” Morris said. “We’ll work out a couple of young guys, up-and-comers. We’ll keep all of those things going. There are no secrets around here and how we go about our business. It will always be a highly competitive atmosphere.”
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.
