The New England Patriots landed on their Stephen Gostkowski replacement.
NFL Network's Mike Garafolo and NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported that the Pats are expected to sign veteran kicker Mike Nugent, per sources informed of the plans. They will also sign former Chargers kicker Younghoe Koo on Friday to join the practice squad, Rapoport added. The team later confirmed both signings.
New England placed Gostkowski on injured reserve Wednesday with a hip injury.
The 37-year-old Nugent enters his 15th NFL season, playing for a host of teams including the New York Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Arizona Cardinals, Cincinnati Bengals, Dallas Cowboys, Chicago Bears and Oakland Raiders. He played three games for the Raiders in 2018, hitting on all six of his field-goal attempts, with a long of 52, and four of five PATs before landing on IR with a hip injury.
Nugent has a career 81.4 percent conversion rate on field-goal tries and has made 96.3 percent of his extra points.
Nugent's best years came with the Bengals from 2010-2016. The kicker's teams have gone 0-5 in playoff games, a goose egg the veteran hopes to change with the perennial January victors from New England.
The Pats chose Nugent after conducting extensive tryouts that included Koo, Kai Forbath and Josh Gable, a former soccer player who spent 2017 minicamp with New England.
