As the saying goes, when you have two quarterbacks you have none. So what do you have when you have no kickers?
Obviously, you have two on your practice squad.
That’s where the Patriots currently are, with neither veteran Nick Folk (pictured) nor rookie Justin Rohrwasser making the team but landing on the practice squad.
"[Folk has] done a good job, hit the ball well,” coach Bill Belichick told reporters on Monday, via Mike Reiss of ESPN.com. “Justin has as well. Certainly there’s a big experience gap here, but that’s not uncommon either. . . . Fortunate we have two players at that position that I’d say are NFL quality.”
Belichick can, if he so chooses, move one of his kickers to the 53-man roster. Alternatively, he can move a kicker from the 53-man roster to the new, game-day up-to-55-man roster and then send him back to the practice squad.
Per rule, a player can be called up to the up-to-55-man roster and sent back twice per year before being exposed to waivers. But even if one of the kickers is lost on waivers, Belichick can simply find another kicker. Or if one of the kickers kicks well enough to earn a roster spot, he can stay put.
Regardless, it appears that Belichick already has hacked the new rules to make kickers even more interchangeable than they already were.