FOXBOROUGH — Some Patriots fans who asked for Stephen Gostkowski to be released may be taking those words back in the coming weeks.
Gostkowski, who has missed five kicks overall in the first four games of the season, was placed on injured reserve Wednesday with a hip injury and reportedly will not return, as he's having season-ending surgery.
His replacement is not yet known — a number of players worked out Wednesday and even more could be coming Thursday — but no matter who it is, he will not be even close to as good as Gostkowski, even with all his struggles to begin the 2019 season.
"I think because of Slate (Matthew Slater) always being the special teams captain, I think maybe sometimes the outside world doesn't know how much he means to our special teams unit and to us as a team," Devin McCourty said Wednesday. "I think for me, just the stability of that position – we never waver if there's a kick on the line, kickoffs, playing against tough returners. Sometimes the best thing to stop a tough returner is Steve kicking a ball out of the end zone.
"So, he's meant a lot to this team, obviously for the whole time I've been here. And obviously, you see a lot of that in the record books and all of that, where he has a lot of records for this franchise, but I always speak on how much he means to the locker room – always keeping it light, he's the best at every little thing and tournament we do in the locker room, so he'll definitely be missed throughout the year, just having his presence in there."
While Gostkowski's first four games of the year were terrible, it's likely at some point during the remainder of the year people will be wishing he was back kicking for the team.
Just look at the names of players brought in for workouts Wednesday — Kai Forbath, Elliott Fry, Mike Nugent, Blair Walsh and Matthew Wright.
The last time Forbath kicked a full season was 2017 when he was wth the Vikings. He was 32-for-38 on field goals, including two misses from 30-39 yards, along with five missed extra points.
Nugent hasn't appeared in more than eight games since 2016 when he was with the Bengals, and he was 23-for-29 on field goals with six missed extra points.
The last one who has NFL experience is Walsh and everyone knows his story.
In 2015 with the Vikings, he missed a game-winning 27-yard field goal in the playoffs with 26 seconds left — a game they ended up losing 10-9. The following year he missed four extra points and four field goals before being released in November. And he really hasn't been the same since.
While Gostkowski hasn't performed well this season, it's not going to get much better with whatever kicker the Patriots bring in. There is a reason all the kickers the Patriots will bring in are currently unemployed -- they're not all that good.
With how good the Patriots are, at some point the kicker is going to be asked to make a pressure kick or two, especially in the postseason. Sure, Gostkowski has had his fair share of postseason struggles, but he's also made some clutch kicks, too.
Just look at the last big game he kicked in — Super Bowl LIII — when he nailed a 41-yard field goal with 1:12 remaining to clinch the win over the Rams.
Is there really more confidence in a kicker being bought in before Week 5 over a three-time Super Bowl champion? No way.
Gostkowski has also been one of the best kickoff men in the league over the years, and that will be something that takes a hit, too. Some have advocated for rookie Jake Bailey to take over that role, but with the success he's had as a punter, doesn't it make sense for him just to continue in that role and not mess with it?
While it may not seem like a huge deal, expect the Patriots kickoff team to feel his absence as well.
It was easy to root for a change when he was missing kicks over the first month of the year, but given the history of his potential replacements, it won't take long for everyone to realize how good New England has had it.
