Jake Bates’ Week 3 preseason showing looked rough in real time, and the metric that helped put kickers under the microscope says it was even uglier than that.
FanSided’s Adam Fromal introduced kick value added, or KVA, as a way to measure kicker performance in the NFL, and it already painted a tough picture for the Detroit Lions kicker’s 2025 season. Bates was ranked 33rd on the KVA leaderboard after what Fromal described as a disappointing follow-up to his breakout first year: “Failing to follow up on a phenomenal first year, Jake Bates missed a whopping seven field goals and two extra points.”
That same lens made Bates’ preseason Week 3 outing look like a disaster. Fromal wrote that Bates posted -1.87 KVA and added, “Jake Bates also deserves a special shoutout of ignominy for posting -1.87 KVA and, though unquantifiable, the worst kickoff of the week...
Bates had the kind of nightmare game that could cause the Detroit Lions to think twice about the length of his leash in 2026. Not only did he misfire right on a pair of extra-point tries - "tries" as the operative word - but he also left a kickoff terrifyingly short of the landing zone, to the point that it almost hit the Indianapolis Colts players who were innocently standing there and assuming they were safe from incoming footballs.”
The odd part for Detroit is that this wasn’t coming out of nowhere. Bates had not been struggling in camp before that game, which makes the performance feel more like a sudden slip than a trend. Even so, the Lions never gave themselves much insurance by bringing in another kicker through free agency or waivers, and that decision looks a little more exposed after a night like this.
One game won’t decide Bates’ job, but his 2025 numbers already make every miss feel heavier. He made just 79.4 percent of his field goals and missed two point-after attempts, so a preseason stumble only adds more weight to the conversation.
Dan Campbell, though, wasn’t sounding the alarm. After the game, he said, “I'm not worried about Bates.
He just pushed them a little bit. He'll be fine.
He'll be fine.”
Still, it’s a situation worth tracking once the season opens. If Bates keeps slipping on the KVA leaderboard, the Lions could feel it in the standings, and with their defense already thin, they can’t afford to give away points on the scoreboard.
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