After missing the entire 2024 season, and losing his job to Jake Bates, could the Lions give Badgley a chance to get his job back in 2025?
Our 2025 Detroit Lions free agency preview has arrived at the special teams side of things. After missing the entire 2024 season due to a torn hamstring , kicker Michael Badgley sat on the IR and watched incoming rookie Jake Bates come in and take the job from him. Badgley was the early favorite to win the kicking job in 2024, but the injury derailed that chance.
With a year off, and the success of Bates, does Badgley have a chance to try and get his job back? Let’s look and see if it makes sense for Detroit to give Badgley another shot.
Here’s a look at our previously written free agent profiles: WR Tim Patrick , G Kevin Zeitler , OT Dan Skipper , DT Kyle Peko , LB Derrick Barnes , CB Carlton Davis
Michael Badgley
Expectations heading into 2024
With majority of his 2023 season on the practice squad, Badgley made the most of his time on the main roster, helping the Lions defeat the Los Angeles Rams for their first playoff victory since 1992. He was the leading candidate for the starting job in 2024, but the Lions also brought in two other kickers, Bates and James Turner, a rookie out of the University of Michigan.
Actual role in 2024
IR (Hamstring): Badgley would never play a down as he tore his hamstring in July, landing him on IR and ending his season.
Badgley was doing well in the spring, as the kicking competition went down from three players to two, leaving it a Bates vs. Badgley showdown for training camp. The injury, unfortunately, ended Badgley’s season, and Bates would go on to win the starting job for the Lions. Head coach Dan Campbell felt bad for Badgley when the injury happened, the first of many for the team in 2024.
“Feel awful for Badge, man,” Campbell said. “He worked his tail off to get ready for this season. He was having a good spring and he was ready for camp. Anyways, it’s tough.”
Outlook for 2025
Contract status: Unrestricted free agent
Could the Lions give Badgley another shot?
The way things ended for Badgley in 2024 isn’t what anybody wanted to see. He was a mostly good kicker for the Lions in 2023, going 24-for-26 on extra points and 7-for-7 on field goals. Even though Detroit brought in Bates and Turner to compete for the job, they liked Badgley enough to give him a chance to be the starter after losing the job earlier in 2023 to Riley Patterson—but then winning back the job midseason.
We know general manager Brad Holmes has had some struggles at the kicker position since arriving, with a total of seven kickers playing for the franchise from 2021-2024. He gave Badgley and Patterson the most shots, each of them playing on the team for two seasons, but Patterson couldn’t keep it going and was released after 13 games in 2023. Badgley is the only kicker to be on the roster for over two years under Holmes, even if he didn’t play in 2024.
Holmes also likes to give an injured player another shot at being on the field. We’ve seen it at a lot of other positions, so why would kicker be any different? It’s also not like Badgley lost his job due to competition, he simply got injured. I could see Holmes understanding that side of it and bringing him back to compete in training camp.
Do the Lions feel comfortable enough with Bates?
While he had a rough training camp, Bates proved that when it came time to play, whether it was the preseason, regular season, or postseason, he was money.
Bates went 64-for-67 on extra points, and 26-for-29 on field goals, his longest from 58 yards out. Badgley’s longest kick for Detroit was from 53 back in 2022. Kicking power is an important trait in a kicker in the NFL. If you can’t make the long ones, you won’t last long no matter where you play. Teams want the option to know that if they can at least get into decent range, their kicker can come out and make it.
While Campbell is known for going for it on fourth down and taking risks, he went for it the fewest times in his tenure in 2024.
- 2021 – 41 attempts
- 2022 – 37 attempts
- 2023 – 40 attempts
- 2024 – 33 attempts
While context matters for every fourth down attempt, you do got to wonder if the change in numbers was impacted by the comfortability he had with Bates compared to the other kickers. Looking at field goal attempts these past four years, it’s hard to tell, but appears that Bates is trusted by the coaching staff.
- 2021 – 30 FG attempts
- 2022 – 30 FG attempts
- 2023 – 21 FG attempts
- 2024 – 29 FG attempts
Again, the context matters for each field goal attempt, but it appeared that Campbell believed Bates could make further field goals than Badgley and he didn’t need to risk a fourth down attempt to get him into range if the team failed to score again.
Cost?
Badgley signed a one-year deal for $1.2 million last offseason. Bates will only hit the cap $1.085 million (with only $50,000 guaranteed) in 2025. With Badgley coming off an injury, there’s no reason to expect him to make any more. So if the Lions were to re-sign him, it would come at or around the veteran minimum (around $1.2 million again).
Conclusion
While Badgley did well in his time with the Lions, I believe with how Bates played in 2024, the team should move on from Badgley and give Bates the job.
That said, Bates is still young. They might want to bring in competition to test him in the spring and training camp so he doesn’t get comfortable. I could see a reunion with Badgley, as Bates hasn’t played enough to earn the level of respect and trust like punter Jack Fox.
The competition will be good for both players no matter what. I think if Bates wins the job again, Badgley can at least move on to a different team and get a chance to start once again. The Lions could also stash Badgley on the practice squad like they did in 2023 and call him up if needed.
What do you think the Lions should do with Michael Badgley?