The Falcoholic
John Parker Romo joined the Atlanta Falcons practice squad this week to “compete” with Younghoe Koo, Atlanta’s struggling incumbent, but it wasn’t clear exactly what that meant. Would he be around for a few weeks warming up and hoping to unseat Koo? Would he simply be insurance if Koo kicked poorly against the Vikings in Week 2?
Now we know. Raheem Morris told media Wednesday that Koo and Parker Romo will kick for the right to handle duties against Minnesota Sunday night, with their performances in practice determining who is up. Perhaps Koo has an innate edge in that competition, perhaps he does not, but it sounds like there’s a legitimate chance Parker Romo gets a practice squad elevation and has the job for at least one week.
Parker Romo last kicked in a regular season game last year, when he went 11/12 on field goals and 7/8 on extra points for the Vikings in four games. Koo is 2/3 on field goals this year with a 44 yard miss and a doinked-in 36 yarder and 2/2 on extra points; a year ago, he went 25/34 on field goals and was a perfect 26/26 on extra points before an injury wiped out the end of his season.
Koo’s days in Atlanta appear to be numbered, whether he loses the job (at least temporarily) this week or to Lenny Krieg in 2026, an unfortunate reality for a kicker who hit 90% of his field goal tries from 2019-2021 and a healthy 86.5% in 2022 and 2023. Last year’s collapse and the worrying signs popping up this year, combined with a contract that isn’t onerous to move on from, make it clear that the Falcons are already thinking about what’s next at a vital position. It’s a massive bummer for a player who had become a fan favorite, but unless he can turn things around right now in practice and games to stave off Parker Romo, Koo is in real trouble.
We’ll see how this one shakes out this week, but the upshot is that we don’t yet know who will be kicking for these Falcons on Sunday night. That’s more than a little nerve-wracking.
