Falcons Sticking with K Younghoe Koo 'Til Wheels Fall Off'

Despite a dismal 1-of-4 performance against the New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons kicker Younghoe Koo's job is safe.

Atlanta Falcons kicker Younghoe Koo missed three field goals in a Week 10 loss to the New Orleans Saints. / Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris stood in the bowels of Caesars Superdome, attempting to explain kicker Younghoe Koo's 1-of-4 field goal performance in a 20-17 loss to the New Orleans Saints last Sunday.

Morris, after some thought, spitballed a comparison for Koo's struggles: Golden State Warriors star point guard Steph Curry, one of the greatest shooters in NBA history.

But Curry, in Morris's words, is also a player capable of a shooting slump -- which Falcons special teams coordinator Marquice Williams echoed Thursday in relation to Koo's struggles.

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"There's days where Stephen Curry has an off day. But, shooters shoot," Williams said. "Then, you shoot until you get hot, and when you get hot, you keep shooting. So, there's going to be a hot streak coming up for Koo, and I'm excited to continue to work for him."

Koo is in the midst of a dismal 2-of-7 stretch dating back to a Week 7 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, which occurred Oct. 20, nearly one month ago.

The 30-year-old Koo, who's in Year 3 of a five-year, $24.5 million contract, hasn't missed an extra point this season, but his 70.8% made field goal rate is third-worst among kickers with at least 15 attempts.

Still, Williams said Koo has remained process-driven, the same as when he made five field goals -- including a game-winning 58-yarder in the final seconds -- in a Week 4 victory over the Saints on Sept. 29.

Atlanta's process has been smooth, Williams said, as long snapper Liam McCullough and holder Bradley Pinion have handled their responsibilities well.

However, the unit's collective results -- reflected by Koo's numbers -- haven't satisfied the Falcons' mission.

"At the end of the day, it's our job to put the ball through the uprights," Williams said. "Sometimes the ball just goes a different way, and we got to live with those and make sure we can learn from those lessons and learn from those situations.

"And don't hinder us, don't let that limit us from getting better and improving, because we're going on a run right now."

Part of the struggle, Williams noted, is kickers don't know when their opportunities will come, or how many they'll receive. This puts added pressure when field goal chances arise, and there are no second or third downs.

There's one chance to nail the operation. When it goes awry -- especially three times in one game -- the pill becomes that much tougher to swallow.

Yet the Falcons see the light at the end of the tunnel. Williams noted there's always room to improve the operation, be it the location of the snap, the cleanliness with which Pinion catches and places the ball or even how much lean the ball has when Koo's right foot kicks it off the turf.

Koo's contact, Williams said, has been good. The results have been substandard, each said. Koo has his own personal kicking coach, and Williams is a resource available each day in the team's headquarters in Flowery Branch, Georgia.

Williams and Koo have experienced great highs together since the latter was hired in 2021. Koo made 88.3% of his field goals over the past three years, and his 91 makes ranked fifth-best league-wide from 2021-23.

The field goal unit has long been a strength for the Falcons, Williams said. And in his eyes, it still is -- though it needs corrections.

"It's just cleaning up some details," Williams said. "Cleaning up his line, where he wants to be with his kick, his approach, his stance. Those little things add to big results. Koo is a phenomenal football player. I'm not just saying kicker. He's a phenomenal football player.

"He has the right mindset to get things done at a high level, and sometimes you have an off day."

Mindset is integral for Koo moving forward. He accepted responsibility for the loss postgame in New Orleans, which Williams said he appreciated from the perspective of integrity and ownership.

Williams also took blame, noting it's his job to make sure Koo is always ready for his next opportunity. Preparation, however, wasn't Koo's problem. Execution was.

But the Falcons have no concerns about Koo's ability moving forward, and Morris said Wednesday Koo has been "awesome" throughout the week in practice, where his percentages have been high throughout the season.

"I don't worry about Younghoe at all," Morris said. "I worry about that game he had. But him moving forward, it is what it is. You're talking about a locked in, secure dude in himself and he's going to go out there and do what he needs to do to fix whatever you need to fix in the most proper ways that you can possibly do it."

Williams added it's his responsibility to know the makeup of each player as far as which buttons to push and when. As he and Koo navigate their fourth season together, Williams believes he has a strong understanding of his former Pro Bowl kicker.

"I have a great relationship with Koo," Williams said. "I understand what makes him tick, how he operates, and I understand he's his biggest critic out of anybody when it comes to how he operates. The thing that was really frustrating for him was he let the team down."

Many outside the Falcons' circle were quick to point fingers at Koo, noting his season-wide struggles culminating in the first three-miss game of his professional career.

But amid external displeasure, Atlanta has treated Koo the same. Williams said he's active in Koo's life regardless of whether he makes or misses a field goal, or if he has a good or bad day off the field.

Williams wants to avoid superficial relationships. He aspires to connect with his players as people, first and foremost, while taking a genuine interest in their lives. Such an approach allows him to enter the mental headspace of his specialists, who ride emotional rollercoasters perhaps as much as anyone.

"It's all about his process," Williams said. "If something's messed up with his process or if there's ways we can improve his process, I'm 120% involved in that. And that's with all of our players when it comes to that.

"We don't just sit back and wait until something happens and then be like, ‘Oh, let's be reactive.’ It's all about being proactive with everything that we do to help our players day in and day out."

Koo has helped the Falcons win many games since his midseason arrival in 2019. He also helped Morris, who was Atlanta's interim coach for 11 games in 2020, get the head coaching job this spring.

Morris feels, at least partially, indebted to Koo. It's part of the reason why he won't tell Koo precisely how to fix specific details such as cadences, strokes or other parts of the kicking mechanics.

And more importantly, it's central to understanding why Morris and the Falcons have their support firmly behind Koo.

"I'm going to let my guy fight his way through his problems," Morris said Wednesday. "Gunfighters get shot and he lines up every single day to go do his deal. With Koo, I'm going to ride that thing till the wheels fall off,. And we'll figure that out when that happens."

But the Falcons don't expect that "when" to come anytime soon. Williams said it's a privilege to coach Koo, who ranks No. 10 on the NFL's all-time field goal accurate list at 86.4%.

The NFL is a results-oriented business. Koo's results haven't met expectations for the past month. But for the five years before that, he was firmly among the league's best.

Atlanta thinks he'll get back to that before his struggles worsen -- and if nothing else, his career-worst day in New Orleans is far from representative of who Koo is as a player.

"That one day doesn't define his career and what he's about," Williams said. "You either look at things in life as a blessing or a lesson, or it could be both. Those situations help players like Koo to develop and get better and have that growth mindset that we talk about all the time."

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