4 former Patriots fan favorites who should be brought back in 2024

Nick Folk, Kicker

Sometimes in life, you have to admit when you make a mistake. The Patriots have to do that with their kicker. Chad Ryland was supposed to be a superstar at the position coming out of the University of Maryland. The Patriots traded up in the fourth round to pick Ryland. The Patriots rarely ever trade up in the NFL Draft, but they did it for a kicker.

Ryland was awful. He was probably the worst kicker in the NFL. He made 64 percent of his field goals on the season. That is historically bad. Only one kicker had a worse percentage this year, and he took one kick and missed it. Every other kicker, even those who only played a game or two, had a better success rate than Ryland. We'll let you guess who had the best success rate in the league.

To make room for Ryland during training camp, the Patriots traded Nick Folk to the Tennessee Titans. Folk missed one field goal out of 30 attempts all season. We get that Folk is older, but results are results. The Patriots literally lost games because of Ryland. Great, because now they have the third-overall pick, but now it's time to get serious at the position.

Folk is a free agent this offseason. While the Titans have shown interest in re-signing him, he apparently wants to test free agency. He turns 38 this season, but we've seen kickers be successful into their early 40s.