The New England Patriots traded up in last April's NFL Draft to select kicker Chad Ryland, who has missed 35-yard field goals in each of the team's last two losses during a disastrous 2-9 season.
The Dallas Cowboys last July signed off the street kicker Brandon Aubrey, who has made 22 of 22 field goals during their 8-3 season.
The Tennessee Titans last August traded with the Pats for veteran Nick Folk, who has made every extra point and missed only one field goal in route to a 4-7 record.
Aubrey, signed by the Cowboys after not playing football in college, has made every field goal and has touchbacks on 93 percent of his kickoffs. Folk, whom the Patriots traded away for a 7th-round draft choice, has made 39 of his 40 kicks for the Titans.
Ryland, meanwhile, has missed six field goals and produced touchbacks on only 69 percent of his kickoffs.
As if the putrid quarterback play of Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe, debilitating injuries and heartbreaking losses weren't enough to sicken Patriots fans during their team's worst season since 1993, there's also Bill Belichick's wild mismanagement of draft assets and woeful miscalculation of his precious special teams.
In the wake of Jones throwing two more interceptions and being again benched (for the fourth time this season) in New England's 10-7 loss to the New York Giants, Belichick on Monday morning gave the flimsiest of endorsements on drafting his drastic regressing quarterback.
"Organizationally we thought it was the right thing to do,” Belichick said of picking Jones 15th overall in 2021. "Collectively we were all for that.”
The coach is seemingly throwing an entire brain trust under the bus.
But when it comes to the kicking game, everyone knows it is Belichick's baby. Ask him about his starting quarterback and he'll give only a gruff shrug. But allow him to praise a special teams player or strategy, and he will fill up a couple of notebooks.
The Patriots entered the 2023 draft with veteran kicker Nick Folk on the roster. But desperate for an upgrade, Belichick made a trade with the New York Jets to move up in the fourth round to take Ryland.
At the time - considering the team's glaring lack of offensive playmakers - it was deemed one of the worst picks in the entire draft. Sure enough, the Patriots offense can't score. And Ryland isn't helping.
New England has scored a league-low 148 points, including only seven and six the last two games. In the 10-6 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in Germany, Ryland pushed wide right a 35-yarder that would've pulled the Pats within 7-6 in the second half. Sunday on a wet, cold, dreary day in MetLife Stadium, Ryland - drafted in part because he was supposedly accustomed to kicking in poor weather during his college career at Eastern Michigan and Maryland - hooked a 35-yarder wide left in the final seconds.
Said Belichick of Ryland on Monday, "Chad is a very talented player but this is two weeks in a row that we basically missed extra points. It's not good enough."
In April the Pats became the first team in 30 years to select a punter and a kicker in the same draft. In November they are now the first team in 30 years to lose consecutive games despite holding both opponents to 10 points.
Bottom line: This is the Patriots' worst season in 30 years and the most unsuccessful of Belichick's legendary 29-year career.
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