NFL

Patriots Kicker Stephen Gostkowski Placed on Injured Reserve, to Undergo Season-Ending Surgery

The Patriots' all-time leading scorer has struggled so far this season

New England Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski has been placed on injured reserve and is expected to miss the rest of the season.

The Boston Globe said Gostkowski was not at practice Wednesday, the first one he missed all season.

ESPN's Adam Schefter said Gostkowski has a left hip injury and is expected to undergo season-ending surgery. He should be ready for the start of next season.

Gostkowski struggled this season, missing four extra points through the team's first gour games. He has gone 7 of 8 on field goals.

The 35-year-old is the most accurate kicker in Patriots history and is the team's all-time leading scorer. He also holds the NFL record for consecutive extra points with 479.

He is in the first year of a two-year, $8.5 million contract.

Before the news about Gostkowski became public, head coach Bill Belichick refused to confirm at a Wednesday press conference if any kickers were being brought in for workouts.

"Yeah, look, I'm not confirming anything, denying anything," he said. "We haven't worked any kickers out, so that's the answer to that question."

Asked if he was concerned with the field goal unit's performance thus far, Belichick didn't have much more to say.

"Yeah, I think as a team, there's a lot of things that we can do better, so we're working every area to improve," he said. "I think we can improve in all three phases of the game and within those phases there's a lot of things we can work on there as well. We need work on everything. It's barely October. We've got a long way to go."

Contact Us