Falcons kicker gets waived and replaced after crucial missed extra point against Patriots, per report

For the second time in two months, the Atlanta Falcons have waived their starting kicker. The latest move came on Tuesday when the team decided to move on from John Parker Romo and replace him with Zane Gonzalez, according to NFL Media. 

Parker Romo had been the team's kicker since Week 2, but the Falcons lost confidence in him on Sunday after he missed a key kick against the Patriots. During Atlanta's 24-23 loss to New England, Parker Romo missed an extra point that would have tied the game at 24 with just 4:40 left to play in the fourth quarter. 

Following the loss, Falcons coach Raheem Morris made it clear that he wasn't going to make any rash decisions about his kicker, but he was also noncommittal about Parker Romo's future in Atlanta. 

"Everything is always going to be talked about, but I don't make emotional decisions," Morris said Sunday. "Those things happen. We have to go back and look at the tape, see what went wrong."

With Gonzalez expected to kick on Sunday in Germany against the Colts, that means that the Falcons are now on their third kicker of the season. 

Younghoe Koo started the year as the kicker, but the team lost all confidence in him after he missed a 44-yard field goal in Week 1 with just six seconds left to play in a 23-20 loss to the Buccaneers. 

Koo had been the Falcons kicker since 2019, but he was on thin ice heading into the 2025 season after hitting just 73.5% of his kicks in 2024. 

After Koo's miss, the Falcons brought in Parker Romo and he ended up being beating out Koo for the starting spot. Parker Romo took over the kicking job in Week 2 and he got off to a hot start by hitting 5 of 5 field goals in a 22-6 win over the Minnesota Vikings. However, Parker Romo has hit just 66.7% of his field goals (6 of 9) since that perfect game, which is likely one big reason why the Falcons were willing to move on following his missed extra point against the Patriots. 

The Falcons will now be handing their kicking job over to Gonzalez, who has only kicked in six games over the past three years. He's been in the NFL since 2017, but he didn't kick in a single regular-season game in either 2022 or 2023. In 2024, he spent six games with the Commanders during a stint where he hit just 71.4% of his field goals, so he might not be a huge upgrade over Parker Romo. 

If the Falcons don't feel like Gonzalez is the answer, they could call Justin Tucker. The former Ravens kicker will be eligible to return next week after serving a 10-game suspension to start the season.