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Mike Reiss, ESPN Staff Writer
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- The New England Patriots have traded veteran kicker Nick Folk to the Tennessee Titans for a 2025 seventh-round draft pick, a league source told ESPN.
Folk, who turns 39 in November, enters his 16th NFL season and is tied for 23rd on the all-time list with 353 career field goals. He ranks fifth among active kickers.
The Patriots selected strong-legged Maryland kicker Chad Ryland in the fourth round of the 2023 draft, trading up to do so. That signaled that Folk's time with the franchise was likely coming to an end, with the Patriots preferring to go with the younger option who also handles kickoffs (which Folk does only as an emergency replacement).
Titans coach Mike Vrabel had called the team's kicking position a "fluid situation" Monday after Michael Badgley was waived. The Titans tried Badgley in their preseason finale after waiving a pair of undrafted kickers who competed throughout the offseason, only to cut him Sunday.
Folk had been a steady presence in New England since joining the team in October 2019 as an injury replacement for then-kicker Stephen Gostkowski. It helped revive his NFL career after he was out of the league in 2018, using a stint with the Arizona Hotshots of the Alliance of American Football to show he was healthy from a 2017 left knee injury that landed him on injured reserve.
Folk was 108-for-121 on field goal attempts (89.2%) in his three-plus seasons in New England, at one point setting a franchise record by making 36 in a row.
While Folk's range wasn't as deep as Ryland's in training camp, he seemed to be more consistent in the practices viewed by reporters.
Folk, the former University of Arizona standout, has been with the Dallas Cowboys (2007-2009), New York Jets (2010-2016), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2017) and Patriots (2019-2022) over his NFL career.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Patriots trade kicker Nick Folk to Titans, source says - ESPN - ESPN
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