The 2025 season had many problems for the Atlanta Falcons, but kicker was certainly one of them. After Younghoe Koo faltered and Parker Romo followed, Zane Gonzalez lent some stability to the position. Despite that strong finish, however, it appears Gonzalez will not be the team’s kicker in 2026.
That will be 41-year-old Nick Folk, instead. Folk—who, god help me, is just a few months younger than me—has been the league’s most accurate kicker in each of the past three seasons, going 28/29 last year on field
goal attempts and nailing 100% of his extra point tries. Folk has not dipped under 95% of his field goals converted since 2022 and has only missed two extra points in that span, both of them in 2023. He’s aging like a fine wine, in other words.
Two of his three misses from the past three years—yes, he’s only missed three field goal tries total—have been from 50-plus yards, but he’s still 18/20 from that range over that span. Assuming there isn’t any sudden, sharp decline, the Falcons just course corrected for a couple of shaky years at kicker by getting a hyper-reliable option. As much as I appreciated what Gonzalez did last year for the Falcons, it’s hard to argue with Folk’s recent results, or the idea of trying to ensure they don’t descend into kicker hell again by getting someone who has been nails in recent years.
Folk can also handle kickoffs, allowing the Falcons flexibility they haven’t always had if they’d like to go in a different direction at punter.
The only real concern with Folk besides the specter of age and decline is injury, as he’s missed a combined four games over the past two seasons. Assuming he’s healthy, though, Folk should be a good addition for 2026 and possibly 2027. I’ll take that, and give him a warm welcome to Atlanta.
