After 17 seasons within the league, most gamers can be content material to trip off into retirement. Not Nick Folks. At 40 years outdated, the veteran kicker is making ready for another run and is actively looking for a spot on an NFL roster for what can be his 18th season.
Folks and his brokers, Michael Hoffman and Gary Uberstine, lately despatched a video to basic managers throughout the league. The footage reveals Folks again in motion, wholesome and assured, following a groin damage that lower his 2024 season brief. The message was easy—he is able to kick once more, and nonetheless one of the dependable choices accessible.
Kicker Nick Folks is trying to play an 18th NFL season. NFL GMs acquired this video of Folks, 40 — the league chief in FG proportion the final two seasons — from brokers Michael Hoffman and Gary Uberstine. Folks injured his groin late final yr however has recovered. pic.twitter.com/AnFOYlEizD
— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) July 23, 2025
This comeback try is not only about nostalgia. Over the previous two seasons, Folks has been probably the most correct kicker within the NFL. In 2023, he transformed 29 of 30 discipline targets. In 2024, he adopted that with a 21-of-22 efficiency. Each years, he led the league in discipline aim proportion. That sort of consistency is difficult to disregard.
Folks’s groin damage final season got here late within the yr whereas he was with the Tennessee Titans. The damage compelled him to overlook the ultimate video games of the season and left questions on whether or not his profession had come to a detailed. However based on his crew, he has absolutely recovered. The video despatched to groups was meant to show precisely that.
All through his profession, Folks has constructed a popularity as one of many league’s most reliable legs. He entered the NFL in 2007 as a sixth-round decide by the Dallas Cowboys. As a rookie, he earned Professional Bowl honors and rapidly established himself as a reliable kicker below stress.
After three seasons in Dallas, Folks signed with the New York Jets the place he performed from 2010 to 2016. He turned the second all-time main scorer in Jets historical past and delivered quite a few game-winners throughout his time in New York. From there, he moved on to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and after a brief hiatus, discovered a second wind with the New England Patriots.
In New England, Folks revitalized his profession. He turned a gradual drive for the Patriots, main the NFL in scoring in 2021 and connecting on a career-best 36 discipline targets that season. Then got here the transfer to Tennessee the place he broke the Titans’ franchise file for single-season discipline aim accuracy.
Throughout 17 seasons, Folks has made 403 of 478 discipline aim makes an attempt, an accuracy price of over 84 %. His longest made discipline aim is a 56-yarder. He has performed in 242 NFL video games and racked up greater than 1,700 factors.
Regardless of his age of 40, Folks’s efficiency in recent times proves he’s removed from completed. His approach, recreation consciousness, and psychological toughness have made him a weapon for each crew he has joined. Now, he’s asking for another likelihood to point out he nonetheless belongs.
With coaching camps in full swing and preseason video games simply across the nook, a number of groups might discover themselves in want of a veteran kicker. Whether or not attributable to damage, inconsistency, or competitors, the door is at all times open for somebody with Folks’s resume and reliability.
His profession has been outlined by clutch moments, long-range accuracy, and a relaxed presence below stress. And now, Folks is hoping to jot down one ultimate chapter. He’s not searching for a farewell tour; he’s searching for a job.
The following few weeks will decide whether or not a crew takes that likelihood. In the event that they do, they aren’t simply getting a kicker with expertise. They’re getting a participant who has spent almost twenty years proving why he belongs within the NFL. And he’s not accomplished but.