It’s been hard to keep up with all the kicking changes for the Detroit Lions over the last couple of seasons. The ever-changing cast has quickly become the football version of being a drummer in Spinal Tap.
The man in charge of the Lions special teams, coordinator Dave Fipp, was asked about the revolving door of kickers — six different ones since the start of 2021 — in his Week 7 press briefing this week. Fipp gave one of the longest answers in Detroit Lions press conference history.
Here’s Fipp’s answer in full, as transcribed by the Lions media department:
“Yeah, I would say – no, I would say there’s a lot of things to the question. But I would say ultimately like, we knew – when I got here, we had let – I mean (former Lions K Matt) Prater wasn’t under contract or whatever, and we didn’t re-sign him, however you say that. So, ultimately, we lost a good player there, so then the goal was to find the next guy, and I think that we knew that in doing that, it was going to take some time. So, we went about that process. We brought (Titans K) Randy Bullock in, who we thought did a nice job for us, but we were also looking for maybe better, younger, a bunch of different things, and didn’t think he was a long-term answer. So then at that point, we had an opportunity to claim (former Lions K Austin) Seibert, and we claimed Seibert, and we felt really good about that. He started for us a year ago. He played well, and then he got injured, which is out there unfortunately. And it’s happened – it seems like it’s happened more frequently around the League, I think. You guys have seen that. So, anyways, Seibert got injured, and then we went with (former Lions K Ryan) Santoso, and he struggled in that game, and so then we moved on from him, and we ended up getting (Jaguars K) Riley Patterson in here, and Riley came in and did a good job. I think a year ago, our numbers or the output for that position, or that production we got out of that position was better than average. It wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t necessarily what we were looking for, but it wasn’t terrible. So then we go into training camp, we have two players we think highly of in Patterson and Seibert. Seibert was obviously coming off an injury, and then he was playing great for us. He had a great camp, he had a better camp than Riley had for us. He was feeling great. Everything was going great, so we were excited. We thought we kind of had the answer to the question, and then ultimately, then Seibert didn’t feel good. He had some discomfort. I don’t know exactly how to say all that, but there’s a lot to that. He had some discomfort and didn’t feel great and wasn’t able to go. And so, anyways, then at that point, we went with (former Lions K Dominik) Eberle, much like Santoso the year before, didn’t go great, and then we brought in some other guys that we feel good about. I would say we’re hoping that this thing settles down. I think it can, between (Lions K Michael) Badgley and (Lions K Sam) Ficken. And I think that whoever we end up going with will go out there and play well for us. Is this an ideal situation to be in? Obviously not, but such is life, like it’s not like we really controlled any of it. I would say personally, in my opinion, I think we’ve made the exact right call the whole way. Would we like a different outcome? Oh yeah, we would like to hit on the next whatever, All-Pro kicker, but it doesn’t always turn out that way. But anyways, we’ll see what happens. I would tell you that I strongly believe that it’ll settle down. We’ll look back at this thing at the end of the year and say, ‘You know what, we got good production out of that position. I think we can turn it around.’ So, it’s still early in the year. When you look at percentages right now, one miss makes a big difference on the overall percentage, so when you look at it that way, I think, yeah, it’s hard to swallow right now, but I would say, when it’s all said and done, I think it’ll be better than what we’re looking at right now, for sure. So, I don’t know if that helps, but yeah, it’s been a challenge. It has not been ideal, but I think we’re on the right track, and we’ll keep working through it. I mean, people aren’t throwing out good players, so – I mean it’s not like – and there’s a bunch of people looking for him right now. And the later you get in the season, the harder it gets to find somebody who can come in and play at a high level. The earlier that happens, the more choices you have. But I think overall, from our decision-making process and all that, I don’t regret or second guess any of the moves we’ve made up to this point, and in hindsight, you would do some things differently maybe, but we obviously don’t have the benefit of all the information. So, anyway, yeah, I don’t know. Hopefully, it’ll settle down here. It’s a good question, and I totally get it. I think saying that there’s been 10 kickers in here makes it sound worse than it is. I mean, we’ve had a couple different kickers. We had really two primarily last year, and hopefully, we end up having two this year primarily, and it settles down, and we end up getting some productivity out of those guys.”
That’s one epic answer from Fipp. By my calculations, it took him just over four minutes to articulate the very detailed thoughts.
