Allen Park — Riley Patterson has been here and done this before. He also has been there and done that, too.
And the 23-year-old kicker knows that is part of the reason why the Lions brought him back here to Detroit, a place he never wanted to leave. A place he says he prayed he’d one day return to, in fact.
But Patterson also knows this is how it goes in the NFL, where things do seem to work in mysterious ways for kickers in particular.
A year ago, Patterson was beaten out for the Lions’ kicking job by Austin Seibert, the veteran he’d actually replaced — due to injury — midway through his rookie season here in 2021. But Seibert only lasted a month into the regular season before that nagging groin problem again sent the Lions scrambling to find a replacement. They eventually found one in Michael Badgley, who’d go on to make 20 of 24 field-goal attempts and all 33 of his PATs over the Lions’ final 12 games.
Patterson, meanwhile, landed in Jacksonville, where he quickly established himself as a reliable starter last fall, drilling 30 of 35 field goals in the regular season and then three more in the playoffs, including a game-winning 36-yarder as time expired to cap the Jaguars’ wild comeback in the AFC Wild Card round.
Yet four months later, Jacksonville signed nine-year NFL vet Brandon McManus, who’d just been released in Denver, and traded Patterson back to Detroit for a conditional draft pick.
And now here we are again, waiting for the kicker to this story, as Patterson tries to beat out another cannon-legged teammate — former XFL star Parker Romo — for the Lions’ No. 1 job. A job that really hasn’t been nailed down since Detroit let Matt Prater walk in free agency after the 2020 season. The Lions have cycled through a dozen kickers on the roster since then, with half of them kicking in regular-season games. And now that they’re entering this season as the odds-on favorite to win the NFC North, it’s safe to say the goalposts have been moved.
A dead heat
But what figured to be a study in contrasts hasn’t exactly gone according to the script through nine days of camp in Allen Park.
Patterson is viewed as the more consistent kicker with limited range, but he booted a 57-yarder to “win” a game-ending situational drill at the end of Wednesday’s practice for the Lions’ first-team offense. And both head coach Dan Campbell and special teams coordinator Dave Fipp have taken note of his improvements on kickoffs, with better depth and hang time thus far in camp.
Romo, who also made his 57-yard attempt in that same last-second drill, has essentially matched the “steady” Patterson kick for kick throughout camp. The 25-year-old Atlanta native has missed on one fewer attempt than Patterson thus far, and had plenty of distance on a 61-yard try that sailed wide right Wednesday. (Patterson’s 61-yarder came up short.)
“We’re pretty much neck and neck,” Romo said. “And we’re kind of disappointed. We’d like to make everything, obviously. But we’ll get there. There’s still time.”
Probably another month, in fact, as Campbell suggested Wednesday this battle likely will continue all the way through the preseason.
“I mean, there’s nothing that would necessarily tip you one way or another right now,” Campbell said. “We’re just letting them compete.”
That’s all either is asking for here, obviously. For NFL kickers, it’s a game of musical chairs, in many respects. And sure enough, less than a week after getting released by Detroit, Badgley had signed with Washington.
“There’s probably 60 of us out there that are good enough to do it,” Romo said. “It’s just whether or not you get the chance to do it.”
Kick it up
Romo, who parlayed a successful spring season with the XFL’s San Antonio Brahmas into a minicamp tryout with the Lions in May, is eager to make the most of a second chance with an NFL team. He was in camp with the New Orleans Saints last August as an undrafted rookie but was cut after the first preseason game.
Patterson has a slightly different perspective, though, after rebounding from the disappointment in Detroit and making it through an entire season in Jacksonville.
“Yeah, there definitely were some highs and lows,” he said. “But having a full year under my belt, it does give me a lot of confidence going into this year. I know I’m a good kicker, and I have been for a while. But actually having a full season, seeing what that’s like, knowing what playoffs are like, knowing what big games are like, it’s nice. You know, I won’t be surprised when things come up going forward.”
Patterson says he’s excited to see some of his friends and former teammates here in a couple weeks, too, when the Jaguars come to town for joint practices in Allen Park prior to their second preseason game at Ford Field. And while he insists he’s not bitter about how this offseason played out, he is determined to capitalize on the opportunity that followed.
“I was definitely surprised at the timing, for sure,” he said of the late May trade. “But that’s just how it is in this league, man. I don’t fault Jacksonville for making that decision. Just because I don’t agree with it doesn’t mean it isn’t best for them, you know?”
Nor does it mean what’s good for one here is bad for the other, necessarily.
“You can’t think about it,” Romo said. “Whatever anybody else does, you can’t let that affect you. You just got to do what you can do, control what you can control. … We’re all good enough to be here. It’s just whoever’s hot is hot.”
And if they’re not? Well, as Patterson can attest, there’s usually another chance. But it may come somewhere else.
john.niyo@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @JohnNiyo