The UFL has only existed for two weeks and Jake Bates has already managed to make a name for himself. The Michigan Panthers kicker is drawing NFL attention after an impressive debut that saw him boot a field goal from beyond 60 yards in each of his first two games.
NFL teams started to take notice of Bates after he hit a game-winning kick from 64 yards in Week 1, and now, it appears they're practically drooling over him after he followed that up with a 62-yard field goal in Week 2. The two kicks made Bates just the second player in football history -- along with former Cowboys kicker Brett Maher -- to hit a field goal of 60 yards or more in consecutive weeks.
According to Panthers head coach Mike Nolan, several NFL teams have tried to contact Bates, which is a problem, because it's against the rules for an NFL team to contact a UFL player during the season.
"Outsiders don't touch our players too much during the season," Nolan said Tuesday, via the Detroit Free Press. "With Jake, somehow some of them are trying to make efforts to do that, to be honest with you, and hopefully that backs off a little bit because that's not -- they're not supposed to do that. And maybe that's rumor, but I had heard something the other day and I kind of said, 'Well, let's make sure we nip that in the bud,' because, look, I want Jake to do well and I want him to get a chance."
NFL teams are allowed to contact the team about Bates, but they aren't allowed to have direct contact with the player. If anyone in the UFL knows the rules about who NFL teams are allowed to have contact with, it's definitely Nolan, who has 33 years of NFL coaching experience under his belt, including a five-season stint as the 49ers' head coach.
Nolan wants to see Bates get to the NFL, but that can't happen until after the UFL season ends in June.
"I'd love to see him in the NFL," Nolan said. "No one right now can do him any good, so the best thing I can do is keep those people away from him currently, because I'm not helping Jake if I don't do that."
Bates has gone 3 for 3 on field goal attempts this season, and if he keeps it up, Nolan thinks he'll have a shot to make it in the NFL.
"Looking at the league and getting into the league, for him, obviously he's just going to have to continue to show consistency through the season," Nolan said. "I know there's a lot of people right now looking at him because of his leg strength, both on his kickoffs as well as the field goals, but more importantly the field goals because if you can get points from far out, obviously you're very valuable to the team."
As Nolan noted, consistency will be a big key when it comes to whether Bates can make it in the NFL. The Panthers kicker, who hadn't attempted a field goal since high school before the UFL season started, was actually in an NFL training camp last year. Bates spent one preseason game with the Houston Texans, but he got released just days after missing an extra point in that game.
Although he's already showed off a booming leg, he'll need to prove that he can reliably kick extra points if he's going to win an NFL job. The problem there is that kicking extra points is something that he won't be able to work on in the UFL. At least not in a game situation. The new spring league doesn't use kickers for extra points. Instead, teams can choose to go for one, two or three points by snapping the ball from the 2-, 5- or 10-yard line.
Bates also has yet to attempt a field goal outdoors and he won't get the opportunity to do that until an April 28 game (Week 5) in Memphis. All three of his field goals this season have come at Ford Field.
Of course, no matter how the rest of the season plays out for Bates, it's almost a certainty that he'll at least be getting an invite to an NFL training camp, thanks to his monstrous leg, and if he shows consistency, then there's a good chance that he could be kicking in the NFL in 2024.
