Koo appreciates 2nd chance to win, hold NFL kicking job

Younghoe Koo found himself in a predicament.

Back home in New Jersey this offseason, Koo wanted to keep his routine, which included kicking on some of the local football fields. But when the COVID-19 pandemic forced much of the world to shut down, he started looking for places to kick, with the local fields and parks closed. In fact, he said police officers asked him to leave the premises of different fields.

Koo had to come up with another plan to get in his kicks.

“I ended up finding a field, a patch of grass and kicking at a tree or something, getting creative to get the work in,” Koo said.

Koo was like a lot of players who needed to figure out new ways to keep training. But having finished the 2019 season as the Falcons’ placekicker, Koo wanted to continue his training regimen so that he could keep his team’s trust after a season that saw him make 23 of his 26 field goal attempts.

While Koo, who signed with the Falcons after the team released veteran kicker Matt Bryant during the bye week, had a successful eight-game stretch to close the season, he knows everything can change in an instant.

As a rookie with the Los Angeles Chargers in 2017, Koo won the starting job over Josh Lambo and opened the year as the team’s kicker. But after four games, which included making only one of his first four career attempts, the Chargers waived Koo. That decision came after he made a field goal in his third game and in his fourth game, too.

He realized then it doesn’t take much for a team to give up on a kicker. The next time he was given a chance to start for an NFL team, he said he’d make sure he was ready to take the job and hold it.

“My first year with the Chargers definitely taught me a lot,” Koo said. “It was definitely the greatest learning experience I could’ve had as a kicker and a person. That experience I had carried over and I knew what I had to work on. When the opportunity came I knew I would be ready. It wasn’t something that happened overnight. I just put the work in and stayed disciplined and waited for that chance. When it came I was ready to go.”

It took some time, more than a year to be exact, which included a detour to the now-defunct Alliance of American Football with the Atlanta Legends in the spring of 2019. Last fall, Koo was signed to the New England Patriots’ practice squad on Oct. 4 before being released on Oct. 15. The Falcons signed Koo two weeks later and started him in the Week 10 road game against the New Orleans Saints. In his Falcons debut, a 26-9 victory, Koo made all four of his fieldgoal attempts and both extrapoint attempts. The Falcons stuck with him for the remainder of the season.

In addition to placekicking duties, Koo handled kickoffs, which included the occasional onside kick. And he was easily the most fortunate of anyone in the league in this department.

Late in the fourth quarter in a 26-18 home loss to the New Orleans Saints, Koo converted two onside kicks, with one of those conversions coming after a successful attempt that was overruled due to a penalty.

After the play with the penalty, which saw Russell Gage knock the ball away from Alvin

Kamara and into Foye Oluokun’s hands, Koo kicked the ball into an open hole with Oluokun cleanly recovering the ball. After hitting a 43-yard field goal on the ensuing drive, Koo attempted another onside kick that got a fortunate high bounce. Oluokun bounced the ball off of Kamara with Kemal Ishmael recovering. The Falcons, however, were unable to convert this attempt into a game-tying touchdown and two-point conversion.

Later in the year, Koo attempted a surprise onside kick against the San Francisco 49ers to start the third quarter. He recovered it himself, with the play being overruled due to an illegal formation penalty. Koo’s lone failed onside attempt came in a loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Officially, Koo converted two of his three attempts but also had two conversions called back due to penalty. To put this in perspective, all NFL place-kickers combined to convert on only 12.9% of onside kicks. Koo was asked about this but deferred his success rate to his teammates.

“That’s not me,” he said. “That’s the rest of the team hustling their butt off to get the ball. I’m just kicking the ball and it got lucky bounces here and there.”

Even though Koo signed a tender to remain with the Falcons for the 2020 season, coach Dan Quinn said he wanted to add competition to the position. The pandemic changed that since teams weren’t able to hold tryouts until as recently as Aug. 11. As a result, the Falcons elected against adding a competitive element at practice. Even so, Quinn said he feels good about the progress Koo has made this preseason.

“There are specific things you can measure and track,” Quinn said. “From the kicking side, Koo has really dialed into the thing that he wanted to improve on. He’s had a hell of a camp kicking.”

Koo has approached each practice as if he’s still battling for a roster spot, considering what happened when he was with the Chargers.

“Through my experience I’ve learned it’s never OK to get comfortable in this league,” Koo said. “You have to produce right now.”