Los Angeles (AFP) – South Korean rookie kicker Younghoe Koo has been released by the NFL’s winless Los Angeles Chargers, who brought back former kicker Nick Novak ahead of Sunday’s trip to winless New York Giants.
Koo, only the fourth South Korean-born player in the NFL, was a 23-year-old undrafted free agent who earned the job over Josh Lambo in August pre-season workouts while Novak, 36, was released by the Houston Texans after pre-season games.
Koo, who made 19-of-20 field goal attempts last year at Georgia Southern University, went 3-of-6 for the Chargers, twice failing to split the uprights with a game at stake.
In the opening week of the season, Koo had a 44-yard field goal attempt blocked in the final seconds of a 24-21 loss at Denver. The following week, Koo missed a 44-yard attempt with nine seconds remaining in a 19-17 loss to Miami.
Koo made both field goal attempts last week but it was too little and too late for Anthony Lynn, coach of the 0-4 Chargers.
“Watching him over the last couple weeks, pre-game in practice, I’ve seen enough,” Lynn said. “It was time to bring in someone with a little more consistency and someone with more experience.”
That choice was Novak, who made a career-best 35-of-41 field goal attempts in 2016 for Houston. He kicked for the Chargers from 2011-14, making 101-of-117 attempts, including 34-of-37 in the 2013 season, a club record 91.9 percent accuracy.
“We feel like Nick was the best choice for our team,” Lynn said. “Nick has been an accurate kicker for a long time.
“Every game we’ve played so far has been a close game and every play, every point, matters.”
Novak is 173-of-209 in field goal attempts over 111 career NFL games for the Texans, Chargers, Washington, Arizona and Kansas City.
Both Lynn and Novak praised Koo, who might yet catch on with another NFL club.
“I think Koo is going to have a long NFL career,” Lynn said. “I told him this happens to a lot of rookies. A lot of rookies get cut early in their career and then come back and play for a lot of years. He may be back here. Who knows?”
Novak watched Koo last week from the stands and was impressed with his skills.
“Koo is a very talented kicker,” Novak said. “He has got a live leg and a lot of talent. I went to the game last week with my wife and watched him warm up. Watched him throughout the game. I was impressed with his leg strength and all that.”
Koo’s chance could come quickly. A report on the NFL’s website on Friday said the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are arranging tryouts for available kickers in the wake of a 19-14 home loss on Thursday to New England in which Bucs kicker Nick Folk missed three field goals, failing from 31, 49 and 56 yards.
“It has been a bad week,” Folk said. “I left points out there. We should’ve won that game 20-19. This one’s on me.”