The Atlanta Falcons were lucky to sign Nick Folk during free agency, and all training camp has done is confirm that notion. Folk went 6-for-6 on field goals during Day 5 of training camp, connecting from as far out as 51 yards, which is pretty spry for a guy in his 40s.
But that's not all. Two days later, he followed that up by goinf a perfect 7-for-7 with a long of 51 (on a bobbled hold) on Day 7. For a team that spent the last two seasons watching its kicking game implode in real time, that kind of perfection felt awesome to see.
The Falcons signed the 41-year-old kicker to a two year, $9 million deal in March, and through eight days of camp he's showing exactly why. He's the most accurate kicker in the NFL over the last three seasons, and his track record suggests these recent clean sheets are no fluke.
The Atlanta Falcons' decision to sign Nick Folk is looking better and better
Atlanta's kicking situation over the past two years has been about as bad as it gets. The Falcons burned through three different starting kickers in 2025 alone... Younghoe Koo, Parker Romo, and Zane Gonzalez.
Koo and Romo were both cut loose midseason and still haven't landed elsewhere in the league, while Gonzalez used his strong finish to get himself a deal with the Miami Dolphins.
It’s hard not to see why Koo and Romo don’t have jobs. Atlanta missed seven field goals and two extra points in 2025. The year before that, Falcons kickers missed a league worst 12 field goals. That's 19 missed kicks across two seasons. Folk, by comparison, has missed just 16 kicks total since 2019.
Nick Folk's game is precision inside 60 yards, not the 60+ bombs some of the league's younger kickers are starting to trot out. But precision is exactly what this roster has been missing.
Folk sounds locked in on the bigger picture, too. " "I like the way the team is going," he said. "So hopefully we can get over the top and get in the playoffs."
The one real caution flag here is age. Folk is already the league's oldest active kicker, and a 93.4% field goal percentage over the last six seasons would tie the best career mark in NFL history if it holds up.
That kind of run doesn't last forever, and Atlanta will eventually need a succession plan once Folk decides to hang it up. That's a problem for a future training camp, though, not this one. He's proving he's still got it.
For 2026, Nick Folk is exactly what the Atlanta Falcons need... A proven, steady leg to close out the close games that got away from them the last two years. If that accuracy carries into the regular season, Atlanta's most fixable problem might already be solved.
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