Lions sound open to letting their kicker try a 73-yard field goal if the right opportunity comes up

Jake Bates has one of the strongest legs in the NFL and if the right situation comes up this season, the Detroit Lions might let him show the rest of the league just how big his leg is. 

During an interview this week, Lions coach Dan Campbell revealed that the team would likely let Bates go as far back as 73 yards for a field goal attempt and that exact situation almost happened during Detroit’s Monday night win over the Seattle Seahawks in Week 4. 

In the Lions’ 42-29 victory, the Seahawks attempted a 62-yard field goal as time ran out in the first half, but the kick fell short. It ended up being returned by Detroit’s Khalil Dorsey, who got out to the 22-yard line while also drawing a facemask penalty. If the Lions had accepted the penalty, they would have gotten the ball at Seattle’s 37-yard line. 

For Campbell, that was too far away for a field goal attempt, but the Lions coach did say that he would consider letting Bates attempt a kick from his own 45-yard line, which would be a 73-yard field goal. 

“That’s probably a little much,” Campbell said trying a kick from Seattle’s 37, via the Detroit Free Press. ‘Man, if I thought we could have gotten to the minus-45, it might have been worth it, just to see him swing at one. But yeah, I would have liked to see that, too. I told (Lions special teams coordinator Dave) Fipp it would have been nice just to get in, to let him swing at one. But we couldn’t quite there.”

The NFL is in a golden era of kicking, but there still aren’t many kickers who could hit from 73 in a game. Brandon Aubrey and Bates are probably two of the few kickers who would even be given a chance to hit from that range in a game. 

The reason the Lions have enough confidence to let Bates attempt a kick from that far because he’s already shown that he can make long kicks. During his lone season in the UFL with the Michigan Panthers, Bates hit three field goals of 60 yards or more, including a 64-yarder that almost certainly would have been good from at least 70. 

Bates’ long field goal came at Ford Field, which is where he now plays with the Lions. Ford Field is also where the longest kick in NFL history happened: Justin Tucker hit a 66-yarder against the Lions in 2021. 

If the Lions do try a kick from 73 yards, it would be a rarity. There have only been three field goal attempts from 73 yards or longer in NFL history with the most recent one coming in 2008 when the Raiders sent out Sebastian Janikowski to attempt a 76-yarder. 

As you can see, the kick didn’t even make it to the end zone. Over the past 15 years, there’s only been two other attempts that even came at least 70 yards with Phil Dawson missing a 71-yard attempt for the 49ers in 2013 and Brandon McManus having a 70-yarder blocked while playing for the Broncos in 2021.