Falcons Hope Third Kicker Zane Gonzalez Is the One Who Finally Sticks

FLOWERY BRANCH, GA – The Atlanta Falcons are looking to regroup after a heartbreaking finish against the New England Patriots in Week 9. Their 24-23 loss will be highlighted by a late missed extra point by Parker Romo, and the ramifications of that miss are still felt at Flowery Branch ahead of Week 10.

On Tuesday afternoon, news emerged that the Falcons had signed veteran kicker Zane Gonzalez in a move that was made official on Wednesday.

Gonzalez will be the third kicker the Falcons have held on their active roster in 2025, and they will hope he is the one who finally sticks.

Longtime Falcon Younghoe Koo started the season after beating out rookie Lenny Kreig during training camp, but his costly miss in Week 1 forced the hand of the staff. They opted to bring in Parker Romo, who won the subsequent kicking competition and locked down the job with a five-field goal performance in Week 2.

Koo was released the next week.

Romo’s tenure was up and down, but marred by some critical misses – mainly his ineffectiveness against Carolina in Week 3 and the backbreaking miss against the Patriots last Sunday.

Koo and Romo combined to connect on 76.5% of their attempts, good for 26th in the NFL through the first nine weeks of the season.

Falcons head coach Raheem Morris is certainly hoping that Gonzalez will provide the consistency they have been yearning for in Atlanta. The veteran was 5-of-7 on field goal attempts last season with the Washington Commanders. He also has stops with the Panthers, Cardinals, and Browns, where he holds a career average of 71.4% over 44 career games.

Gonzalez actually competed in Flowery Branch during the first kicking battle, but Romo beat him out in what Morris called a “very tight battle.” Now, they are opting for the veteran presence.

“Zane was the elder statesman, and Parker was the younger statesman,” Morris explained. “We went with the younger statesman [the first time]. Gave him a great opportunity, and Parker gave us a bunch of really good kicks. We missed a kick the other day, and we can't miss those kicks. We’ve just got to find a way to be more consistent, get some operational peace. So, we just chose to go with Zane and give him an opportunity to see if he can come in and give us a little more operational peace when it comes to kicking and all the things that go into that.”

Rookie Ben Sauls, who was signed to the practice squad to compete with Romo a few weeks ago, was also released on Tuesday. The Falcons' head coach confirmed that Sauls kicked in practice, but was not “as consistent as it was with Zane” during those opportunities.

Now, Gonzalez will get his opportunity to prove he belongs in Berlin against the Indianapolis Colts.

“I'm excited for an opportunity to come in here and perform,” Gonzalez said.