As it turns out, the Patriots do have a weapon in their arsenal.
He might not be on the offensive side of the ball, but he scores just the same.
Better still, he does his best work from distance.
Four games into the 2024 season, and kicker Joey Slye has emerged as one of the best players for the Patriots.
While the team didn’t have the most reliable kicker last year in rookie Chad Ryland, they seem to have one now.
Slye has not only been reliable, but he’s given Jerod Mayo a weapon who’s capable of making 60-yards kicks.
On Sunday, he nailed two long field goals in the 30-13 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
One of those was a 63-yarder. That set a new high in Patriots team history. Stephen Gostkowski had the previous high with a 62-yarder back in 2017.
Slye’s boot was also the fourth-longest kick in NFL history. Brandon Aubrey hit a 65-yarder earlier this season for the Dallas Cowboys, while Baltimore’s Justin Tucker hods the NFL record at 66 yards.
During a Zoom call Monday, the Patriots kicker put his kick into perspective. This was outdoors, which added to the degree of difficulty.
“Difficulty-wise, I do think this is one of the harder kicks I’ve hit, obviously distance-wise, I mean, I’ve played in (Levi’s Stadium) a couple of times, and sometimes the way the wind swirls in that stadium, you just can’t get a very consistent pattern based off those two openings on that home side,” Slye said of the record-setter, before adding: “That’s the furthest one I’ve hit in a game. So I definitely would rate that as one of my top hits.”
As for the longest kick he’s ever made, practice or game, Slye said he made one from 73 yards out in college.
With 60-yard kicks now being less of a rarity in the NFL, the Patriots seem to have struck gold with Slye.
To date, he’s 8-of-9 on field goals, with the one miss being a blocked attempt against the Seahawks.
“I’ve been able to hit it from deep for a while,” said Slye. “It’s just been throughout my career continuing to add to the consistency of my game that has been on the forefront of all my training.”
