INDIANAPOLIS – Jake Bates had a rough finish to what’s been an inconsistent summer, but Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell said he’s not worried about his third-year kicker heading into the regular season.
“No,” Campbell said. “I’m not worried about Bates. He just pushed them a little bit, he’ll be fine. He’ll be fine.”
Bates missed two extra points wide right in the Lions’ 25-16 win over the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday, Aug. 29, and hit one of his five kickoffs short of the landing zone.
Bates had an up-and-down training camp after he changed his approach to field goals and extra points this offseason.
He told the Free Press he moved his setup position about 1 yard closer to where the holder places the ball. In 2024-25, he lined up about 4 yards
from the spot. This year, he’s a little over 3 yards.
Bates said the new approach changes the timing of his kick a little bit but “I feel like now I have more of a trigger of when to go.”
“I've always been far from the ball, and I think the thing that made me want to switch was I felt like a couple misses last year were kind of because of timing and I felt like I needed to rush," Bates told the Free Press this month. "It’s a whole thing, but I felt like shortening up was something that I could do to help that timing mechanism in my head, not feel rushed, and hopefully it works
Bates made 27 of 34 field goals (79.4%) last season and finished the season as one of only three kickers to make less than 80% of his kicks on 28 or more attempts. He missed 5 of 9 kicks last season from 50-plus yards.
In the preseason, Bates was 3-for-4 on field goals but struggled with misses at times during camp. He made kicks of 41 and 52 yards in Week 1 of the preseason against the Cincinnati Bengals, and made a 37-yarder and missed a 55-yarder wide right last week against the Washington Commanders.
Snap counts
Campbell cautioned not to read too much into the playing time of several of his players in Saturday’s preseason finale.
The Lions sat nearly all of their starters and several key backups against the Colts, but Tyler Lacy, a part-time starter at defensive end – he’s played with the first-team defense at the big-end spot most of training camp – played 11 defensive snaps, including some in the fourth quarter.
Most teams sit their starters in the third preseason game, or have them on the bench after a series or two.
Defensive linemen Aidan Hutchinson, Alim McNeill, Tyleik Williams and DJ Wonnum did not play Saturday.
“Really, everybody else played,” Campbell said. “We had them up. [Mekhi] Wingo got a little bit of a groin [injury], but Wingo, Sky [Gill-Howard], Myles Adams. Levi [Onwuzurike]. So it wasn’t, I wouldn’t read into the, ‘Well, he’s played in the fourth, why not just the first?’ It was more about the snaps, or the defensive personnel group we were in.”
Undrafted rookie edge rushers Eric O’Neill (35) and Anthony Lucas (31) led all Lions defensive linemen in snaps. Wingo led the Lions’ interior rushers with 26 snaps.
Campbell said backup center Seth McLaughlin did not play Saturday because of a brain injury, and the Lions only used backup receiver Tom Kennedy for one snap on special teams while giving most of the other receivers fighting for jobs ample time on offense.
“We wanted to give him a couple of, one or two of these punt returns,” Campbell said. “We were going to play the rest of those guys on offense, Malik [Cunningham] and [Greg] Dortch and get a good handle on them. Like we’ve got a really good handle on who Tom Kennedy is. We love Tom Kennedy. We know what he is. And then the returner, get a look at Dortch again.”
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Dan Campbell 'not worried' about Lions K Jake Bates after missed PATs
