NFL teams rarely spend draft capital on kickers. Only 10 have been selected over the past five years, including Alabama’s Will Reichard by the Minnesota Vikings in 2024.
Generally speaking, teams don’t draft kickers just to cut them. The rookie tends to get at least a year to test his mettle in regular-season games before getting booted for a more proven, veteran option.
The Vikings spent a sixth-round pick on Reichard, who was lights-out as a rookie prior to a Week 9 quadriceps injury that landed him on injured reserve. Minnesota signed a hidden gem in former XFL star John Parker Romo, who was nearly perfect over a four-game stretch.
The team, however, went right back to Reichard in Week 14 against the Falcons. Reichard finished the year 25 for 31 overall on field goal attempts and was an impressive 38 for 38 on extra points.
Romo wound up signing a futures contract with the New England Patriots back in January — and he now appears to have the upper hand in a tight training camp competition that no one saw coming this summer.
Ex-Minnesota Vikings kicker John Parker Romo has New England Patriots rookie Andres Borregales in danger of getting cut
The first kicker selected in the 2025 NFL Draft was the University of Miami’s Andres Borregales by the Patriots in the sixth round. Borregales was one of the best kickers in college football last year, converting all 62 of his extra points while going 18-for-19 on field goal attempts.
The pick was an obvious blow to Romo’s chances of winning a starting job out of camp. We all know how this story ends. The journeyman veteran never beats out the sixth-round rookie in this situation. Romo’s training camp stop with the Patriots was expected to be more of an audition than a competition with Borregales this summer.
But in one of the top camp surprises across the entire NFL, Romo is not only competing with Borregales — he might be winning entering Thursday night’s preseason finale against the New York Giants.
Several Patriots 53-man roster projections have picked Romo over Borregales this week, including Chad Graff of The Athletic.
“The kicking competition is going down to the wire, with either still capable of making it. For the first time, we’ll give the slightest of advantages to Parker Romo over Borregales, the sixth-round pick, after the latter badly hooked a long field goal try Saturday.”
Romo put the rookie on notice when he booted a 57-yard field goal in New England’s preseason opener against the Washington Commanders. Borregales had a chance to match him during Saturday’s game against the Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium, but he was late running onto the field and missed from the exact same distance. It wasn’t even close.
Vikings fans will remember Romo going 11-12 on his field goal attempts last season, including a conversion on his lone attempt from 50-plus. He’s definitely got the chops to be an NFL kicker; it's just a matter of getting an opportunity.
Patriots special teams coach Jeremy Springer has gone on record saying that Borregales’ draft capital will not be a tiebreaker come cut-down day. We’ll find out soon enough, but Romo has definitely pushed the rookie to the brink in a competition that’s coming down to the wire.