The New England Patriots decided not to re-sign Joey Slye after an up-and-down 2024 season and instead are going with a kicker competition between John Parker Romo and rookie Andres Borregales.
Romo joined the Patriots' practice squad in December last season after the Minnesota Vikings waived him. The Vikings re-signed Romo in November after cutting him at the end of the NFL preseason. Minnesota needed a replacement starting kicker after Will Reichard sustained an injury.
In four games with the Vikings, he made 11-of-12 field goals, including 5-of-6 from 40-plus yards out. He also made 7-of-8 extra attempts.
It wasn’t a huge sample size, but enough for the Pats to keep him on the roster. However, on Tuesday, the 27-year-old kicker did not have a good outing at OTAs.
According to Brian Hines of Pats Pulpit, Romo missed two field goals between 40-50 yards out, connecting on 2-of-4. One of Romo’s missed attempts went wide right, while the other went wide left.
Meanwhile, Borregales has much better success, going a perfect 4-for-4 on his attempts. Even though it's only OTAs and these early workouts should be taken with a grain of salt, it's not good that Romo is struggling.
The Patriots spent a sixth-round pick on Borregales, who was viewed as the best kicker in this year’s draft class. Over his four-year career at the University of Miami, he made 86 percent of his field goals (74-of-86) and 99.5 percent of his extra points (183-of-184).
Last season with the Hurricanes, Borregales converted 18-of-19 field goals (94.7 percent) and a perfect 62-of-62 extra points (100%). The 5-foot-11 kicker also has a big leg, making 70% of his attempts from 50-plus yards in college.
It won’t be easy for Romo, as the rookie has the leg and stats to make this kicker competition interesting as we get closer to training camp and into the preseason. We’ll see if he can rebound in the coming days and weeks.