getty Rodrigo Blankenship #98 of the Georgia Bulldogs.
Former University of Georgia all-star kicker, Rodrigo Blankenship met with the Atlanta Falcons this week at the NFL Scouting Combine. They told him they’re in the market for more kicking competition.
AJC reporter, D. Orlando Ledbetter first tweeted the news yesterday morning.
Blankenship isn’t only a spot-on kicker, he’s also very humorous. He knows exactly where his strengths and weaknesses lie and it’s definitely not in the upper body he confirmed that when he said he was glad he didn’t have to do the bench press part of the combine. “It wouldn’t be impressive,” he said.
Blakenship’s Scouting Report
Here’s how Blankenship measured in this week.
Height: 6-1
Weight: 190
Hand: 9″
Arm: 30 and 5/8 inches
Wingspan: 73 and 1/8 inch
Blankenship is considered to be the best in his class. He has a trusting leg and made six of nine kicks of 50-plus yards during his career as a Georgia Dawg. He also connected on nearly 93% of his attempts under 40 yards. However, during the 2019 season, he missed six kicks, so he’s entering the NFL on a bad foot, yet still at #1.
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Blankenship As a Dawg
Georgia’s Blankenship gained a lot of recognition during his time as a Dawg wearing his Rec Specks and kicking game-winning field goals. Flashback to the national championship game in 2018 when his 51-yard field goal put the dawgs in overtime against Bama.
Blankenship talked about his time at Georgia with Patriots.com
“I got to play in a lot of games at Georgia that were on the national landscape and I feel that helped me,” Blankenship said. “The most important thing for any specialist is your mental game and your mental toughness. It’s been a recurring theme with my interviews. Asking how I handle adversity and tough times. I’m just trying to prove I’m going to be resilient even when things aren’t going your way.
“Playing at the University of Georgia has been such a great experience. It’s allowed me the opportunities to go out and play in high-pressure environments, high-pressure situations playing in games that have an impact on the national landscape each and every year. That’s been great in preparing us to do what we do in the toughest situations.”
Not the Only Georgia Kicker
Georgia’s 2017 football alum, Cam Nizialek is also on his journey back to the NFL and training on a daily basis. He was hopeful the Falcons would sign him until they picked up Sam-Irwin Hill as a punter. Cam did tweet out after the Hill news thanking Georgia fans for their support and he will be ready if the Falcons ever do need him.
It was also reported by Ledbetter that another kicker, this time from Georgia Southern, also met with #Falcons ST coordinator Ben Kotwica. He informed the media he “loves coach Kotwica.”
Ex Georgia Southern kicker Tyler Bass met with the #Falcons ST coordinator Ben Kotwica. “I love coach Kotwica,” he said.
There’s no doubt that Younghoe Koo has his starting position locked in after resigning another one-year contract last week, but it’ll be interesting to see if this kicking competition will take place this offseason.