Nick Folk was brought to Atlanta to steady a position that had been anything but stable, but eight games into the season the Falcons still do not have the consistency they wanted. Folk has made 12 of 16 field goal attempts and missed an extra point, a stumble that stands out for a kicker who entered Atlanta after 67 straight successful extra-point tries.
That matters because the Falcons have spent the better part of the last two seasons searching for a reliable answer at kicker, and this year alone they have already used three different kickers. Younghoe Koo, John Parker Romo and Zane Gonzalez all got chances, and their combined 32 makes on 39 field goal attempts left Atlanta with an 82% conversion rate that ranked among the league's worst.
Folk's recent form is more jarring because it runs against what he had shown before arriving. In his previous three seasons, he missed just one field goal in each campaign, which is why Atlanta believed it had finally found a veteran who could end the churn. Instead, the season has already included a missed extra point and four missed field goals across those 16 attempts, enough to reopen the question the Falcons thought they had answered in the offseason.
The frustration is sharper because the Falcons have lived through every version of this problem already. Younghoe Koo missed a potential game-tying field goal against Tampa Bay in Week 1, and John Parker Romo missed an extra point in a one-point loss to New England. That is the backdrop Folk walked into when Atlanta brought in Nick Folk and Craig Aukerman in the offseason, hoping the change would bring order rather than another reset.
Whether the Falcons stick with Folk now depends on how much more patience they have left for a position that has cost them too many clean endings. For the moment, Atlanta still has the veteran kicker it wanted, but not yet the reliability it came to find.
