FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Younghoe Koo is ready to make his return.
The 30-year-old kicker's sixth season in Atlanta ended prematurely when a hip injury landed him on injured reserve in Week 16. After the Falcons concluded their first OTA practice on Tuesday, Koo said he feels back to normal and has picked up his typical offseason regimen.
"Health-wise, it's great. It wasn't as serious as it could have been, so I'm fortunate in that," Koo said. "Every offseason I go through my training and offseason routine, and I'm right where I want to be if not further along."
Koo had an atypical season for the Falcons in 2024. He converted 25 of his 34 attempts, a success rate of 73.5%, which was his lowest since joining Atlanta. Koo missed two kicks last season from fewer than 40 yards away, matching his previous total number of misses from that distance with the Falcons.
Atlanta's 17-20 loss to the New Orleans Saints in Week 10 stands as the nadir for Koo's season. He missed three kicks — one of which was blocked — in a game the Falcons had multiple chances to win. Koo then appeared on the team's injury report in Week 13, and the lack of improvement with his hip ultimately led to the IR placement a few weeks later.
"My hip, it's like a rotator muscle. I've dealt with it before," Koo said. "It just comes with kicking. It was sore in the beginning, and it wasn't really affecting my swing that much, so I just kept kicking on it and it just progressively got worse.
"I was like, 'Alright, I'm not helping myself or the team at this point. No point in further injuring it. I'm not able to perform the way I want to,' So, I shut it down."
Koo recovered without the need for surgery, only some injections, and said he was "pretty full-go" a couple of weeks after the season wrapped up. Had the team reached the postseason, Koo said the plan was to return two weeks into the playoffs.
That never happened, and Koo's recovery continued right into the offseason. However, with on-field action ramping back up, Koo looks to have a competition ahead of him for the first time since he took over as the Falcons' starting kicker in 2019. It was something head coach Raheem Morris brought up as a possibility when the season concluded in January.
"We missed entirely too many kicks this year," Morris said then. "The brutal honest truth — that can't happen. So, we got to find ways to make those kicks. That certainly plays into the part of not winning the amount of games you want to win. We got to find ways to create that competition across the board for all of us."
The Falcons signed German kicker Lenny Krieg this offseason after an impressive showing at the NFL combine. According to Over the Cap, Krieg received a three-year contract, which suggests the team envisions a bigger role for him than simply as a camp body.
"It's not my first time having a kicker in the locker room with me throughout OTAs or training camp, but it's just kind of how it is in the NFL," Koo said. "He's a great dude. He works hard."
As a German-born player, Krieg is a part of the NFL's International Player Pathway program. Under the program's guidelines, Krieg could be exempt from counting against Atlanta's 53-man roster limit in the regular season and allow the Falcons to keep both kickers.
Prior to last season, Koo had never made less than 86.5% of his field goal attempts as a member of the Falcons. During the 2020-21 seasons, he converted kicks above a 93% clip. Now, Koo seemingly has to earn his keep.
That's just the life of an NFL kicker, though. It's always about the next kick. If he can return to his previous level of play, Koo will make a strong case to remain Atlanta's starter.
"You're always competing, you're always getting evaluated," Koo said. "Obviously, I think last year's performance, whether injury or not, is a motivating factor enough for me. But, every season, I try to reset and work hard to really do the best I can."
