Nick Folk: Stay or Go? Part 2: Field Goals in 2010

How was Nick Folk attempting field goals for the Jets in 2010? Most people think he was horrible. It is more complicated than that. It was something of a tale of three seasons for the kicker. There was a four game stretch in the middle of the season where he only hit 7 of 13. This is where most fans lost all faith in him. Aside from that, he was pretty accurate. He was 25 of 29 before and after that stretch, a mark of 86%. Over the final seven games, including the Playoffs, the only field goal he missed was the one in the Divisional round at New England.

Folk was also more reliable than people give him credit for on the short kicks. He hit 86% of his kicks from inside 40 yards. His areas of struggle were on the tough kicks. He was only 6 of 12 on kicks past 40 yards. It did not always look pretty, but Nick was not really the shaky guy on the routine kicks people made him out to be.

It is easy to say that there was just one bad stretch that did Nick in. While that is true, we cannot pretend that stretch did not exist. At the end of the day, he was outside the top 20 for the league in field goal kicker accuracy. I do think that Nick was treated a bit unfairly, though. It felt like people were looking for a reason to jump on him even after his hot start. This happens when a guy replaces a popular player as Jay Feely was. Overall, Folk was not great, but this season was not a total washout. The Jets likely would not have beaten the Vikings without Folk.