Pats Re-sign K Nick Folk

Kliq

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Mar 31, 2013
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Folk was very good last season and made some big kicks. Surprised he couldn't get a longer-term deal, it feels like a bunch of teams have had suspect kicking in recent years.
 

Ferm Sheller

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Mar 5, 2007
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Wow, three kickers on the roster: Folk, Rohrwasser, and Aguayo. When's the last time that happened (except maybe for short periods last year)?
 

nattysez

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Sep 30, 2010
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Let's just hope he's not the best player on the team again next year...
Jake Bailey would like a word...

Folk's stats last year are pretty impressive: 13-13 inside 40 yards, 11-12 from 40-49, 2-3 from 50+. 3 missed XPs is not ideal -- he was 30-33

He's probably the perfect guy for a team that has a punter who can kick off and is almost never going to try long-ish FGs, as BB would rather go for it or pin the other team deep.
 

bigq

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Jul 15, 2005
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Let's just hope he's not the best player on the team again next year...
Ha! I vaguely recall being mocked in a game thread for commenting that Folk was one of the best players on the team. Agree that he will have some competition for that distinction this year.
 

bsj

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Folk is fine. He had a good year. He’s not going to be kicking any 50 yarders into the wind, but he’s proven solid at short and moderate kicks.

given that we’ve filled so many holes, wouldn’t shock me if he took yet another K in this draft and gave him a chance to win the gig in camp
 

dynomite

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Folk is fine. He had a good year. He’s not going to be kicking any 50 yarders into the wind, but he’s proven solid at short and moderate kicks.

given that we’ve filled so many holes, wouldn’t shock me if he took yet another K in this draft and gave him a chance to win the gig in camp
Yes Folk was perfectly cromulent last year and Belichick seems comfortable with Bailey handling kickoffs.

Still, I'll probably always be puzzled that they (and every other team) passed on Blankenship in the draft and went with Rohrwasser. With Wynn & Michel it seemed clear they liked Georgia's program, everyone was convinced Blankenship was going to be a star, and while he wasn't perfect in Indy last year he was pretty dang good.
 
Apr 24, 2019
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I get that “outside the box” has paid off for the Patriots before, but this pick is an infuriatingly apt example of the Pats FO getting too cute by half, especially given that Bass and Blankenship were pretty much exactly what prospect previews predicted. What a waste. Oh well. We’ll always have ”racist tattoo-gate.”

And yes, “only a 5th” and all that, but still. Value can be had there and elsewhere, and this team needs as many smart plate appearance as possible.

edit typos and clarifying.
 

Ferm Sheller

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Yeah, and they should have skipped picking that skinny QB out of Michigan in the 6th round 20 years ago like everyone else did, and what a wasted pick on that Kent State QB 10 years ago. Imagine trying to make a WR out of him? Everyone else passed on him, why couldn't the Pats?

You win some, you lose some.
 
Apr 24, 2019
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There’s a wide gulf between that pick (where STs are typically taken) and the flyers the FO took on Brady and Edelman. And I thought I pretty clearly acknowledged the caveat you’re pretending I didn’t.
 

Ferm Sheller

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When you say "too cute by half", you seem to imply that they had Bass and Blankenship more highly rated (like many others likely did), but they obviously didn't. Sometimes they get it right with their scouting, sometimes they don't.
 

ZMart100

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Aug 15, 2008
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Yeah, there were kickers "more highly rated" by most scouts than Gostkowski when he was taken in the 4th in 2006 (permutations of Conor Hughes, Jon Scifres, and Josh Huston). That worked out. A miss on a K who was injured in camp is pretty weak evidence that the Pats' process at the position is broken.
 

joe dokes

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Jul 18, 2005
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When you say "too cute by half", you seem to imply that they had Bass and Blankenship more highly rated (like many others likely did), but they obviously didn't. Sometimes they get it right with their scouting, sometimes they don't.
"Too cute by half" is another example of ascribing sports failure to some personal shortcoming, rather than just failure. Like player x can't just be shitty, he has to be "weak" or somesuch.
But with BB, at least it's different than the old chestnut, "arrogant."
Just wait til Rohrwasser, like many kickers before him, has success elsewhere after being cut by his first team.
 

lexrageorge

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Jul 31, 2007
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Criticizing Belichick for drafting Rohrwasser is simply looking for things to criticize. Most 5th round picks do not work out; not the worst strategy to use the pick on a kicker.