FOXBORO -- As Stephen Gostkowski was placed on season-ending injured reserve, the New England Patriots brought in several kickers for workouts. It was Mike Nugent who separated himself from the pack and won the job.
Nugent, a 37-year-old with 14 NFL seasons under his belt, has a track record that speaks for itself. He's 253-of-311 on field goal attempts (81.4 percent) in 134 career games and is 363-of-377 on extra-point attempts.
That résumé, as one would expect, played a factor in the Patriots choosing Nugent over other candidates such as Kai Forbath, Elliott Fry, Blair Walsh, and Matthew Wright.
"He's got a lot of experience," head coach Bill Belichick said on Friday. "Felt like he was the best option."
The experience got Nugent's foot in the door, but how much did his performance in his workout factor into the final decision to sign him?
"A lot," Belichick said. "A lot of the workout, just seeing where the player is currently. But the past has some relevance too. It's a combination of both. It'd be hard to sign somebody at that position that didn't kick well in a workout."
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An added benefit to Nugent's game is his experience playing in harsh weather conditions, which likely will be a challenge in the coming months.
"He's an experienced kicker that's kicked in New York, in Cincinnati," Belichick said. " I don't know that that's going to be a factor this week, so we're just worried about this week right now. It doesn't hurt that he's done that."
Along with Nugent, Belichick confirmed Friday the Patriots signed 25-year-old kicker Younghoe Koo to the practice squad. Koo's lone NFL season was in 2017 with the Los Angeles Chargers when he appeared in four games, going 3-of-6 in field goals and 9-of-9 in extra points.
"Just a player we wanted to look at that's practice squad eligible," Belichick said of Koo. "It gives us a chance to see him on the practice squad situation. We'll see how it goes. He doesn't have a lot of experience."
The Patriots are one of the very few NFL teams that have had stability at the kicker position over the last several years. Gostkowski has been the go-to guy in every game since 2006, except for in '08 when he missed the second half of the season and was replaced by ex-Bengals kicker Shayne Graham.
Belichick had high praise for everything Gostkowski has done for the organization over the years, but showed plenty of faith in his new kicker.
"Through the years we've had a lot of stability, no doubt about that," he said. "But look, sometimes things happen and you have to make changes like any other position and do the best you can.
"Stephen Gostkowski is one of the greatest kickers of all time. He's been great for this franchise. Unfortunately, he's not available, so we'll move on. Mike [Nugent] has done a good job, he's got some experience. I've got a lot of confidence in Mike or we wouldn't have signed him. Is he different than Steve? Yeah, we'll see how it goes."
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