Saints head coach Kellen Moore wouldn't shovel dirt on his kicker in his post-game press conference, but it couldn't be called support, either.
After another pair of misses, this time from 38 and 47, that hamstrung the Saints during a 24-10 loss to the Falcons, Moore said the team intended to evaluate the position.
"Obviously it’s an important thing we’ll have to evaluate," Moore said, "really dig into what happened today.”
It was an opportunity to shut down the conversation entirely, but the head coach didn't take it, a departure from the response to struggles early in the season. In this case they were misses that prevented the Saints from keeping pace in what was an uneven but close first half in a frustrating loss to the Falcons. The first miss meant a 75-yard kickoff return from Mason Tipton resulted in zero points. The second miss squandered an opportunity for momentum before halftime. The Falcons took advantage with a late drive of their own for a field goal in the second quarter.
Zane Gonzalez of the Falcons, who was signed by Atlanta ahead of Week 11, made kicks of 56, 41 and 54 yards in the first half.
Grupe's second miss drew a loud chorus of boos from crowd, and they became even louder when he took the field for a 33-yard attempt in the fourth quarter that he converted. Grupe also knocked through his lone PAT attempt without issue.
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“Right now I don’t have a whole lot of answers, to be real honest. Other than the fact then when you go out and have a perfect week over and over and over throughout practice and you go out in a game and there’s just something that’s not – that’s not working right now," Grupe said after the game, "so I mean, all I can do at this point is look at literally everything, look into myself, first of all, and go from there. But other than just literally continuing to put the work in week by week and day by day, that’s all I can do at this point.”
The misses were Grupe's seventh and eighth of the season, the second setting a new career high after seven misses in his rookie season of 2023. Grupe missed just four kicks in the 2024 season, two of which came from 50-plus. This year the misses have come all over the map, with two misses from 30-39 and another three in the 40-49 range. Grupe had appeared to right the ship after a rough start with makes on 7 of his past 8 kicks heading into the game, the lone miss a 53-yard attempt on a windy day in Chicago.
Grupe, a team captain, pushed back on the idea that there was any kind of mental hurdle he was struggling to clear, but did say he's looking at everything. He noted that his pregame warmup was the best he'd had all season. Both kicks narrowly missed to the right.
"It’s frustrating. I’m frustrated. I know the fans are," Grupe said. "I know a lot of guys in this locker room are, because I owe it to them, I owe it to literally everybody to be better, so I don’t have a whole lot of answers right now other than I’m just gonna keep trucking, keep working and see what happens.”
Grupe said there's no value in worrying about his own job, but whether the job remains his will be the big question heading into Week 13. To this point the Saints have been steadfast in allowing the young kicker to work through what has been described as a "rough patch," but patience could be wearing thin. If the Saints do opt to make a change they could potentially turn to Charlie Smyth, an international pathway player who has spent the past two seasons on the team's practice squad.
Smyth, a native of Ireland who came up playing Gaelic football, has never attempted a kick in a live NFL game but he has been perfect on his preseason attempts. Struggles early in this past season's training camp ended what looked to be a promising kicker competition early, but his high-powered leg has intrigued fans for some time.
“Charlie is certainly in the developmental role," Moore said when asked after the game. "You know, he’s done a lot of good as he’s gone through this process for a couple years now in the developmental role. Again, it’s something that we’ll just have to spend some time and invest some time. Today is not going to be the answer to all that and I think it’s a process that we’ve got to go through.”
The Saints head back on the road for the next two games, first with a trip to to face the Dolphins before heading to Tampa for another matchup with the Bucs. Catch all the action on WWL and Audacy.