Getty Randy Bullock celebrates after a kick in 2017.
The Detroit Lions are in the process of turning over nearly their entire roster, and one of their biggest changes will come on the special teams side of things.
After losing kicker Matt Prater to the Arizona Cardinals, the Lions are bringing in a brand new man to kick the ball in 2021, but he’s a veteran of the league in Randy Bullock.
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According to Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network, the Lions will be signing Bullock to kick for them this coming season and replace Prater, their veteran kicker.
The #Lions are finalizing a deal with veteran kicker Randy Bullock that should be done tonight, per source.
So after losing Matt Prater to Arizona, Detroit moves quickly to replace him with Bullock, who spent the past four seasons in Cincinnati.
It’s perhaps a bit of a surprise to see the Lions going with a veteran kicker considering they had Matthew Wright on the roster, but with this move, it’s obvious that the team wants to make sure they can get the right kicker in the mix in order to make sure things go well.
Randy Bullock Stats
Bullock came into the league as a fifth-round pick out of Texas A&M for the Houston Texans, and kicked there for four seasons. He then moved on to the New York Jets, Pittsburgh Steelers and most recently the Cincinnati Bengals from 2016-2020. In his career, Bullock has been fairly accurate, hitting 83% of his kicks in the league. He has a long field goal of 57 yards in his career, and was the Lou Groza Award winner from 2011 as the best kicker in college football.
In his NFL career, Bullock has seen some up and downs, but he has been reliable for the most part which could be why he was the choice at kicker for Detroit. Nevertheless, some Lions fans will be upset by this fact given the loyalty they had to Prater through the years.
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Lions Special Teams Seeing Changes
The turnover is going to be strong on the Detroit side of things, considering that Prater is leaving as well as kick returner Jamal Agnew. New special teams coach Dave Fipp has his work cut out for him in terms of trying to get the group into shape, but it’s clear that a veteran kicker was a big part of the insurance policy that was needed for this team. Wright has not kicked in the NFL outside of going 8-8 on field goals, so it’s possible the team wants to make him earn the job and not hand it to him. If that is the case, they made an interesting choice in Bullock to replace Prater and try to push him.
Perhaps the only veteran player of the group will be punter Jack Fox, but that could change if thte team brings back veteran long snapper Don Muhlbach. Even if that’s the case, he will be snapping to a new kicker in Bullock when all s said and done next season.
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