The Lions' much-anticipated training camp battle between kickers Jake Bates and Michael Badgley is over. Badgley suffered a "significant" injury warming up before Thursday's practice and will undergo season-ending surgery, Dan Campbell announced Friday morning.
The injury, per Adam Schefter, is a torn hamstring. Badgley has been placed on injured reserve.
"Feel awful for Badge, man," Campbell said. "He worked his tail off to get ready for this season. He was having a good spring and was ready for camp, so it’s tough."
That leaves the Lions with just one healthy kicker on their roster. That would be Jake Bates, who's never kicked in the NFL. He also never attempted a field goal in college; he handled kickoff duties over two seasons at Arkansas after pivoting from playing soccer at Central Arkansas.
Bates signed a two-year deal with the Lions last month following a standout season in the UFL with the Michigan Panthers and is off to a good start in camp, but he's hardly a given to be Detroit's kicker this season.
Asked about Bates' lack of experience, Campbell said, "We gotta put him in as many pressure situations as we can in camp. And he has kicked in games, I know it’s not the same thing, but the only way you’re going to know is if you put him out there and see how he does, and that’ll come.
"Right now he looks pretty good. It’s early, but he has a big leg and I like his personality, his aura. He’s got some confidence about him, which is nice. He seems pretty consistent about the way he goes about his business, the same guy every day, which I appreciate. So we’ll just see. We’ll keep working him through practice and see where this goes.”
Campbell said the Lions will bring in another kicker to compete for the job, though they're not in a rush to do so: "We actually just had a workout and brought in some guys to take a look at. It’s something that Brad (Holmes) and I are talking about right now, but we’re not in a hurry, either. We find the right guy that helps us for competition, then for camp, we’ll do that.”
Badgley, 28, spent the past two seasons with the Lions, going 24-for-28 on field goals and converting all but two of his extra point attempts, but most of that success came in 2022. He attempted just four field goals last season afrer spending most of the year on the practice squad behind Riley Patterson.
The Lions attempted just 21 field goals last year, fewest in the NFL.