Falcons bring in kickers Elliott Fry, Younghoe Koo for workouts after latest Matt Bryant misses

In a miserable year where virtually nothing has seemed to go the way it was supposed to, not even the great Matt Bryant can escape misfortune.

Bryant has gone 9/14 on field goals and missed one extra point this year, a far cry from his legendary reliability in years past. The 44-year-old has been perfect from 20-29 yards and 40-49 yards but has missed one of his four tries from 30-39 yards, and is just 2 for 6 from 50+. He missed two of them on Sunday against the Seahawks, though he had the distance to convert both of them.

Seeing this, the Falcons are working out a couple of kickers who they also worked out prior to signing Bryant. This is probably just to ensure they have a couple of numbers on speed dial, but obviously it’s a grim sign given that the team has never even really had to think about doing this in the past unless Bryant was hurt.

Fry doesn’t have an NFL regular season kick to his name, but does have a very good leg. Koo hit 50% of his field goal tries for the Chargers back in 2017, but again, has a strong leg.

Given the way this season is spiralling and Bryant’s history of rallying from misses, it probably only makes sense to ride with Bryant unless the Falcons view Fry or Koo as potential 2020 options. The Falcons did, after all, go through that weird offseason dance where they cut Bryant and ended up signing him for more than he would’ve gotten on his existing 2019 contract, so a few missed field goals from 50-plus shouldn’t be the nail in the coffin for a 1-7 team. I really can’t believe we’ve gotten to this point.