Analyst: Jake Bates Can Help Lions Get to Super Bowl

Lions potentially have improved their special teams unit significantly.

Michigan Panthers kicker Jake Bates celebrates game winning kick / David Reginek-USA TODAY Sports

The Detroit Lions believe their roster has been ugraded enough to give the team another strong opportunity to compete for the Super Bowl in 2024.

Appearing on "The Rich Eisen Show" this week, analytics expert Warren Sharp explained that the addition of kicker Jake Bates can be a factor to help the team get over the hump after falling short last season.

"But this is a team, I think, that is set to have another similar season and one or two things go their way and this is a team that could be the NFC representative in the Super Bowl. One of those things is kickers," Sharp said. "We know that the Detroit Lions, over the last four years no team has made fewer field goals than the Detroit Lions. Not just that, we know Dan Campbell doesn’t like to attempt field goals, he goes for it on fourth down."

If Bates is able to beat out Michael Badgley, Detroit could take advantage of his leg strength. In recent years, Detroit has ranked in the bottom third of the NFL in conversation rate of field goals.

"They rank 25th in conversion rate of field goals, especially the longer field goals," Sharp noted. "We’ve seen them sometimes bang a couple of really long ones several years ago, but this team has really struggled kicking from distance and now they go out and get Jake Bates who I think is obviously a weapon in the kicking game. He went 17-of-22 in the regular season, and he was 14-of-16 on attempts under 50 yards but 7-of-12 from 50 plus. The Lions have made only 10 field goals in the last four years of 50-plus yards. He did it in just one season, he made seven of them, made seven-of-12. So I think that’s gonna help them a lot this season."

Jake Bates' experience at Houston Texans training camp in 2023 #NFL pic.twitter.com/31AQBQZ7uw

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Related: Kicking Battle Takes Center Stage at Detroit Lions Training Camp

After a stint with the Houston Texans in training camp last year, the former Michigan Panthers kicker expressed he always had self-belief he could excel at the professional level.

“I always thought that I could kick really well if I was given the opportunity, that I’d be able to show that my leg is a good leg. I think I belong, at least a chance. It was just one of those things, just waiting to get my chance," Bates recently told All Lions. "I always have self-belief and I think that goes a long way for anybody in any circumstance. It was just a time where it wasn’t necessarily my time.

"God was calling me to wait, teaching me patience and his timing is so perfect and I’m so grateful for it," Bates continued. "That self-belief was never not there, but I knew just keep working, what happens in the dark is gonna come to the light and just kept trusting the process and waiting for my turn.”