When Michael Badgley went down early in training camp with a hamstring injury, Jake Bates became the only kicker on the Detroit Lions’ roster. An up-and-down run in camp invited the idea competition should be added, but the coaching staff stuck with him knowing there would be ups and downs.

That patience was rewarded. Bates went 26-for-29 on field goals (6-for-8 from 50-plus yards out) and 64 of 67 on extra points this season, on his way to a single-season franchise-record 142 points. He was clutch, and trusted to try long field goals like no Lions’ kicker has been since Dan Campbell became head coach.

Kicking is as much a mental activity as a physical one. Before kicking for the UFL’s Michigan Panthers last spring, Bates had not attempted a field goal since high school. Then an NFL team, and one of the best in the league to boot, was relying on him as their kicker.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Bates did a deep dive into his kicking process. It seems trivial and obvious, but developing trust with long snapper Hogan Hatten and holder Jack Fox went a long way to helping him.

“Sometimes that takes a long time to fully develop that trust,” Bates said. “I think I had a lot of growing to do, mentally and physically, and I had to get ready for a stage that I hadn’t been on. So I think just calming down and being like, ‘I belong here,’ I think that helped me a lot.”

Jake Bates recalls moment that turned his season

Bates acknowledged how he feels “kicking’s never going to click” or be “completely figured out.” Over the first four games this season he did not attempt a field goal longer than 35 yards, and he missed an extra point in Week 3 against the Arizona Cardinals.

Against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 6, Bates barely made his first extra point. It was bad enough that a Cowboys’ defender waved his arms to signal “no good”. In general, he had been pushing extra points toward the right upright and that near-miss led to him figuring out why.

“I was just rushing my second step,” he said Thursday. “And it’s, I mean, there’s so many things with kicking that’s so nitpicky, and maybe that’s not even what it was, but it made sense in my head. And so that’s something that I’ve been working really hard on, just finishing each kick.”

Bates missed two extra points in Week 17 against the San Francisco 49ers, but otherwise there have been no hiccups as he has asserted himself as one of the best kickers in the NFL. For the first time in Campbell’s tenure, kicker is a position of strength for the Lions.