Lenny Krieg‘s strong leg could take him all the way from Germany to the NFL.
A former soccer player, Krieg took up football in 2021 during COVID at the suggestion of his older brother, a former football player and current coach in Germany. He watched tutorials on social media to hone his technique and, after playing three seasons in his home country, the 22-year-old Berlin native was picked for the NFL’s International Pathway Program.
As part of that initiative, which aims to give elite athletes around the world a chance to make NFL rosters, Krieg participated in the Scouting Combine showcase in February. He went 14-for-14 in Indianapolis, kicking from 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 and 55 yards. That led to another solid performance at a pro day in South Florida and, in March, Krieg was signed by the Atlanta Falcons.
He enters training camp with the opportunity to compete for the starting kicker job against NFL veteran Younghoe Koo. It may sound like a fairy tale, but it’s not so farfetched when you consider that Krieg has made a 73-yard kick in practice.
Krieg was one of several young specialists who recently participated in former NFL kicker Nick Novak’s annual pro week in San Diego. After nine seasons in the NFL, Novak is now a high school coach, a kicking consultant and a mentor to developmental players.
“I’ve watched Nick’s social videos for a long time and it’s almost like a dream coming true, a full-circle moment for me to be here with these guys,” Krieg told me at the camp. “It’s beneficial for me to integrate some of the things I’ve learned here into my process, figure out what works for me and what doesn’t. So it’s really valuable.”
Krieg has a legitimate shot to win the starting job over Koo, who is scheduled to make $4.25 million in 2025, making him the fourth-highest-paid kicker in the league. Koo, who turns 31 in August, made just 73.5% of his field-goal attempts last season, his lowest percentage since his rookie season with the Los Angeles Chargers in 2017, when he made just 50% and lost the job after four games.
In Week 10 last season, Koo missed three kicks in a 20-17 loss to the New Orleans Saints. He dealt with a hip injury for much of the season, which eventually landed him on IR in Week 16. After the Falcons lost six of their last eight games and missed the playoffs, however, coach Raheem Morris cited kicking as one of the issues.
“We missed entirely too many kicks this year,” Morris said in January. “The brutal honest truth — that can’t happen. So, we got to find ways to make those kicks. That certainly plays into the part of not winning the amount of games you want to win. We got to find ways to create that competition across the board for all of us.”
The Falcons created that competition by signing Krieg to a three-year deal, which shows that Atlanta is invested in him. Koo is reportedly healthy now, so this could be one of the more interesting camp battles to watch.
“There’s 32 jobs in the league, and my job is to just perform to my level and improve every day,” Krieg said when asked how he’ll handle the competition with Koo. “And whatever happens, happens. I try to control what I can control, and whatever is out of my control is just something that’s going to happen.”
What just might be in Krieg’s control is that a talented but raw prospect from Berlin, who learned to kick an American football on YouTube, could soon be a starting kicker in the NFL.
Photo courtesy of Nicole Noel Photography.
Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on X at @eric_d_williams.
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