Younghoe Koo was a fan favorite for the Atlanta Falcons, and for most of his career one of the best kickers in franchise history.
But on Friday, his time in Atlanta officially came to an end as the Falcons announced his release.
Koo has been replaced by Parker Romo, who went 5-for-5 on field goals in his team debut in Week 2. Head coach Raheem Morris announced earlier Friday that Romo would start again this week, and by late Friday afternoon, the Falcons had announced Koo’s release.
The Falcons had relied on Koo as their kicker since 2019.
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He had his worst NFL season last year, making only 73.5% of his field goal attempts. Koo had never been below 86% for a season before that.
In the fickle world of NFL kickers, teams don’t give a lot of time for players to figure things out.
Rather, they ride the hot hand, and that’s Romo right now.
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To be fair to Romo, he made 11-of-12 field goal attempts a season ago in fill-in duty for the Minnesota Vikings, so his recent NFL sample size is incredibly accurate.
Koo seems like he’ll get signed elsewhere sooner rather than later. It’s never long before another team is looking for a new kicker, and Koo was one of the league’s most accurate kickers for a long time.
But for now, he’s cut loose and a free agent. It’s a bummer of an ending for a former Falcons star.
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