The Atlanta Falcons' decision to move on from Younghoe Koo earlier this season was met with a lot of controversy, but it seems to have worked out for the best. After releasing him, the Parker Romo experiment quickly went awry, but the Falcons have seemingly struck gold with Zane Gonzalez.
Meanwhile, Koo's time with the New York Giants has started to hit a roadblock after making all of his field goal attempts in his first three starts. In Big Blue's Week 13 loss to the Patriots, his cleat got stuck in the turf on a 46-yard field goal attempt and wasn't even able to complete his follow through.
That hilarious moment prompted punter Jamie Gillian to pick up the snap and attempt to run for it, but to no avail. As bad as things got for the 31-year-old in Atlanta across the last two seasons, this was a new low—and fans can only laugh as he embarassed himself on primetime in another uniform.
Younghoe Koo is proving why Falcons fans were right to turn on him
Koo was once one of the best kickers in football and the most accurate kicker in NFL history, but the fall-off has been steep. The Pro Bowler made nearly 95% of his field goals in 2020 and was just as good in 2021, but his 73.5% field goal percentage in 2024 marked a career-low by a wide margin.
After missing a game-tying field goal against the Bucs in Week 1, the Dirty Birds finally listened to the fanbase and cut ties. It never erased how much fans loved him, but seeing Romo go 5-of-5 in his debut and Gonzalez win NFC Special Teams Player of the Week helps vindicate the move to the fans.
The weirdest part about Koo's journey is what it took for him to get a second shot. He failed to beat out Jude McAtamney originally, but he was quickly cut while Graham Gano's continued injury woes saw him get the second shot fans were waiting for. But it hasn't been as successful as anticipated.
The kick was very indicative of how this season as gone for the 2-11 Giants, who were thrashed 33-15 on Monday night. Even Jaxson Dart's return from injury couldn't save the G-Men from an embarrassing loss on national TV, but at least they did what the Falcons couldn't and fired their coach.
At least Giants fans can relate to the frustration of the Atlanta faithful after the ex-Falcon played a pivotal role in pathetic defeat.