Younghoe Koo reportedly will miss time with groin injury

The Falcons have a plethora of injuries right now, injuries that have been problematic in both of their last two losses. The last thing they need right now is more of those injuries, but that’s exactly what they keep on getting.

Younghoe Koo reportedly dealt with a groin strain during Sunday’s game but kicked through it, with Sterling Hofrichter taking over on kickoffs. Koo missed an extra point an 48 yard field goal try, and it appears he’s not going to be able to kick through it on Monday Night Football against the Packers.

Koo is 8 of 9 on field goals in 2020 with a long of 49 yards, and has hit 6 of his 8 extra point tries after Week 3. If he can’t go, the Falcons more or less have to put him on short-term IR and lose him for a few weeks, because there’s not a ton of open roster spots to go around right now given their depth needs at other positions where injuries are piling up. If there’s any doubt he’ll miss more than one week, I expect him to land on it.

The Falcons will have to go get a short-term replacement. Right now in free agency, they can choose from former Bucs kicker Matt Gay (77% on field goals in 2019, 90% on extra points), Elliott Fry (who has never kicked in a regular season game but has received multiple tryouts from the Falcons), Giorgio Tavecchio (cut last summer and hasn’t re-surfaced), the immortal Matt Bryant, or a collection of relatively unproven kickers who lost jobs over the summer of 2020. There aren’t a ton of immediately appealing options, but the Falcons did sign Koo mid-season last year and he went on to play well, so chances are they can unearth a decent kicker for a handful of games. I would imagine that Bryant’s bitter ending with this team and their decision to dump Tavecchio probably precludes either of those guys from returning.

We’ll hope Koo is healthy and back in action soon, but stay tuned for a potential signing and IR designation.