After about 30 years of being mostly bad or mediocre, the Detroit Lions are enjoying some long-awaited days of wine and roses right now.
They’re coming off a season in which they finished first in the NFC North with a 12-5 record and came to within minutes of clinching their first-ever spot in the Super Bowl, and they seem to still have room for improvement.
Per Aaron Wilson, the Lions are poised to sign kicker Jake Bates, who spent last season with the Michigan Panthers of the United Football League (UFL).
#Lions expected to land UFL standout kicker Jake Bates, per sources, who visited them, #Packers #Commanders and had interest from three other #NFL teams @KPRC2 https://t.co/aLxdmrpq1X
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) June 14, 2024
Bates went undrafted last year out of the University of Arkansas, where he played his final season of college football after two years at Texas State University.
Before that, he spent his first two years of college as a soccer player at the University of Central Arkansas.
While in the UFL, Bates made 77.2 percent of his field goal attempts, and in Week 1, he made a 64-yard field goal to defeat the St. Louis Battlehawks, making it the second-longest made field goal in pro football history.
Unlike Major League Baseball, the NFL has never had a minor league or farm system, but now, the UFL, which consists of the now-defunct United States Football League (USFL) and the XFL, could turn into something approaching that.
The Lions are now the recipient of high expectations for the 2024 season, and some feel they even have a great shot at reaching the Super Bowl and winning it all.
They haven’t won the league championship since the 1957 season, long before the AFL-NFL merger resulted in the first Super Bowl.
