NICK FOLK
Incumbent hopes to hold off pal.
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CORTLAND — Last Thursday night, the best competition of Jets training camp took place away from the ESPN cameras, away from the fans and away from reporters.
Kickers Nick Folk and Josh Brown went toe-to-toe, literally, during the team’s nightly walkthrough, closed to everyone but the team. As the duo kept kicking from farther distances, teammates began to cheer. Folk missed a 63-yard attempt wide left. Then, Brown booted his 63-yarder through the uprights, sending his teammates into a celebration.
“That might have been the best individual competition I’ve witnessed since I’ve been coaching,” said Jets special teams coordinator Mike Westhoff, in his 30th season in the NFL. “It was outstanding.”
For all the attention being paid to the quarterbacks, the true competition in Jets camp is between the kickers. The Jets brought Brown in to push Folk, who has been their kicker for the past two seasons. So far in camp, it has been a dead heat. In Saturday night’s scrimmage Folk was 3-for-3 and Brown was 3-for-4, missing from 40 yards. Before the game, Brown hit a 68-yarder in warm-ups.
“We’re not having bad days,” Brown said. “That’s just a matter of, ‘We’ve got to get into that groove and it has to continue.’ It is really going to be a hard decision.”
That’s what the Jets wanted.
Folk opened last season by making his first 11 field goal attempts, but he ended up totaling 19 of 25 during the season. One miss, a 24-yarder against the Patriots, still irks Westhoff.
“Because of inconsistencies,” Westhoff said when asked why he wanted a competition in camp. “You know that it’s there [with Folk]. You know the ability is there to come out and kick the field goal to beat Indianapolis [in the 2010 playoffs], and then you miss a 24-yarder against New England. That level of inconsistency I’m trying not to accept.”
The Jets re-signed the 27-year-old Folk in March, but Westhoff had his eyes on taking a kicker in April’s NFL Draft.
The Rams released Brown after they drafted his potential replacement, Greg Zuerlein. The 33-year-old had one year left on his five-year, $14.2 million deal, but St. Louis wanted to move on after he was 21-for-28 on field goals last year. Brown said 10 minutes after the Rams waived him, the Jets called his agent.
Over nine seasons with the Seahawks and Rams, Brown is an 81-percent kicker. Folk, who has played for the Cowboys and Jets over five years, is a 78-percent kicker.
“We’re pushing each other,” Brown said. “Either way you look at it, one of the best kickers in the world is going to be here. The other one will most likely end up somewhere else. Right now, we’re making it hard on the Jets. The Jets are going to have to make a hard decision.”
Adding an element of intrigue to the competition is the fact the two are good friends. They first met in 2008 when they faced each other and have worked out together in the offseason, including this year in San Diego. Brown sent Folk a text message to alert him after he signed with the Jets.
“I like Josh,” Folk said. “I have a ton of respect for him. He’s a great guy. It’s fun to be around. It’s fun to have this competition. Sometimes it stinks you’re not allowed to be on the same team.”
The Jets have four preseason games and four weeks of practice left to make their decision. So what is it going to come down to?
“I think it’s comfort level,” Brown said. “Who do you feel comfortable with … in the rain, in the cold, windy days? We’ve both been in those positions. It’s going to be hard. It’s a lot harder [decision] than any other position out here.”