Nick Folk’s revival in Atlanta is the kind of thing that can make Buccaneers fans wince on sight.
The Falcons brought in the veteran kicker this offseason, and early signs out of training camp have been spotless. That alone is enough to stir up old memories in Tampa Bay, where Folk’s 2017 run remains one of the stranger and more painful chapters of the Buccaneers’ kicking history.
Folk has been one of the league’s steadiest legs for most of his 18-year career, converting 85% of his field goals. But there’s one glaring outlier: his time with the Buccaneers. In 2017, he hit just 54.6% of his field goals and was cut after four games.
That stretch still stands out for how quickly it unraveled. The low point came in a 19-14 loss to the eventual Super Bowl champion Patriots, when Tampa Bay had a chance to stun Tom Brady in primetime. Folk missed all three of his field goal tries, and the upset slipped away.
“Folk is a career 85% FG kicker, came to the Bucs and magically forgot how to kick in 2017.
54.5% on field goals through four games and went 0/3 against the Patriots, costing us a win over Tom Brady.
The Bucs kicker curse was a WILD time to be alive. https://t.co/AT6Xk2jb7w
- Josh Crysler (@josh_crysler) July 21, 2026”
The weird part is that Folk never really looked like that kicker before or after Tampa Bay. He was excellent with the New York Jets last season, making 96.6% of his kicks and tying for the NFL’s highest field-goal percentage among kickers with at least 20 attempts. Now he’s in Atlanta, where the Falcons are hoping he brings the kind of stability they’ve been chasing.
That stability has been hard to find. In 2025, Atlanta went through Younghoe Koo, Parker Romo, and Zane Gonzalez before landing on Folk. Bucs fans know that storyline well enough, and they got another fresh reminder last season when Koo missed a game-tying kick in the final seconds of Tampa Bay’s 23-20 win in the opener.
Tampa Bay lived through its own kicking chaos for years before finally settling things down with Ryan Succop and then Chase “Money” McLaughlin. So when Folk starts piling up perfect days in camp, it lands a little differently in Florida.
Blogging Dirty’s Falcons contributor Garrett Klaus summed up Folk’s early camp work this way:
"Folk went 6-for-6 on field goals during Day 5 of training camp, connecting from as far out as 51 yards… Two days later, he followed that up by going a perfect 7-for-7 with a long of 51 (on a bobbled hold) on Day 7. For a team that spent the last two seasons watching its kicking game implode in real time, that kind of perfection felt awesome to see."
The timing makes this even more interesting for Tampa Bay, since the Buccaneers and Falcons are set to meet twice this season. A reliable Folk could tilt a couple of tight moments Atlanta’s way, and the Bucs know exactly how much one kicker can swing a season.
That’s why the memory of Matt Gay still hangs around, too. After a rough stint in Tampa Bay, he came back to Raymond James Stadium with the Los Angeles Rams and drilled the game-winning field goal that knocked the Bucs out of the playoffs.
So yes, Folk’s success in Atlanta is more than a nice little comeback story. For Buccaneers fans, it’s a flashback they’d rather not relive. And if Tampa Bay is going to have any say in a race that is expected to be close for the NFC South title, it probably needs the Falcons’ kicking game to get messy again.
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