One of the fresh faces on the Lions fresh 2024 53-man roster is Jake Bates, the former UFL kicker who worked his way into Detroit's lineup after veteran Michael Badgley suffered a season-ending injury in training camp.
Badgley tore his hamstring on July 26, leaving Bates as the team's primary kicker for the remainder of the preseason. Despite having reportedly worked out various free-agents for the job, the Lions seem to have put their full confidence in Bates heading into Week 1 at this point, too.
Thankfully, Bates has impressed throughout Lions camp and became one of two UFL players to make their first NFL roster this year. Here's everything to know about the kicker, including why Detroit signed the former Michigan Panthers star.
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Who is Jake Bates?
Bates is currently the lone kicker on the Lions depth chart after having signed a two-year contract with the team on June 18 of this year. The 24-year-old grew up in Tomball, Texas, playing both football and soccer for Tomball High School.
It's not his first venture into the NFL. Despite going undrafted in the 2023 NFL draft, Bates signed with the Houston Texans in late July of the same year. However, he was released by the team less than two weeks later.
Where did Jake Bates go to college?
Recruited to play soccer at Central Arkansas, where he attended for the 2018 and 2019 seasons, Bates eventually transferred to Texas State to join the football team. There, he only handled kickoffs but played in 24 games, helping the team lead the Sun Belt Conference in kickoff coverage during the 2020 season.
His fifth year, Bates transferred to Arkansas where he earned First-Team All-SEC honors from the league's coaches as a kickoff specialist. He was the best in the conference and finished fourth in the country with an average of 64.47 yards per kickoff. Bates also led all of FBS in touchback percentage with 64 of his 75 kickoffs resulting in one.
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Jake Bates stats
In December 2023, Bates signed with the Michigan Panthers of the UFL. The league had recently adopted a kickoff rule requiring the ball to go 80 yards for a touchback which made players like him highly desirable.
It became clear quickly that Bates didn't only sign on with the Panthers to do kickoffs. In Week 1 of the UFL season, he not only hit a game-winning field goal—he hit the longest field goal in the history of the league. The 64-yard effort was the first in-game field goal of Bates' life.
His subsequent success for the Panthers, including two more field goals of 60-plus yards, earned him a spot on the 2024 All-UFL team. Bates' contract with Michigan was terminated on June 17 in order for him to be able to sign with an NFL franchise, which he did one day later.
Here's a look at his UFL stats from the 2024 season.
Michigan Panthers UFL 2024 stats
| GP | FGA | FGM | Long (yds) |
| 10 | 22 | 17 | 64 |
Though he's had limited time to showcase his kicking skills in live game situations for the Lions so far, Bates participated in all three of the team's preseason matchups. He performed alright, albeit missing one of two field goal attempts, but its hard to judge anything for sure yet.
Here's how Bates did during August with Detroit.
Lions 2024 preseason stats
| GP | FGA | FGM | Long (yds) | XPA | XPM |
| 3 | 2 | 1 | 46 | 3 | 3 |
Lions kicking stats
Kickers Riley Patterson and Badgley combined to go 19-for-21 on field goal attempts last season, good for 90.5 percent and 11th in the NFL. Patterson accounted for the two missed attempts and two missed extra points before losing an ongoing kicking competition in practice to Badgley for the starting spot.
Badgley competed in the final four games before the playoffs without missing a field goal and making 13-of-15 extra points. However, the special teams unit only attempted two 50-plus yarders during the regular season, making one.
2023 Lions regular season kicking stats
| Kicker | GP | FGA | FGM | Long (yds) | XPA | XPM |
| Riley Patterson | 13 | 17 | 15 | 52 | 37 | 35 |
| Michael Badgley | 4 | 4 | 4 | 41 | 15 | 13 |
That attitude changed when Badgley was asked to complete a 54-yard field goal in the Wild Card Round, which he did on the way to helping the Lions to beat the Rams for the team's first playoff win since 1991.
Later on in the postseason, head coach Dan Campbell faced scrutiny after rejecting field goal attempts twice in the second half of the NFC championship game on fourth and short. The Lions failed to convert both times in the eventual loss to the 49ers, and the decision had many questioning Campbell's confidence in his kickers.
Regardless, Badgley was perfect in the postseason for Detroit, putting up good numbers despite the turbulence.
2023 Lions postseason kicking stats
| Kicker | GP | FGA | FGM | Long (yds) | XPA | XPM |
| Michael Badgley | 3 | 3 | 3 | 54 | 11 | 11 |