Veteran Kicker Nick Folk Makes a Decision On Playing Status For 19th NFL Season

At 41 years old, most people are thinking about career pivots, lower back pain, and whether it’s finally time to get into pickleball. Nick Folk is thinking about his 19th NFL season.

According to NFL Media’s Tom Pelissero, Folk plans to suit up again in 2026 after another rock-solid year with the New York Jets. He’ll hit free agency next week, but teams will be lining up. When a kicker is this reliable, you don’t let him walk out the door without at least making a phone call.

Folk Put Together Another Quietly Elite Season In 2025

Let’s talk numbers, because Folk’s numbers deserve to be talked about. He went 28-of-29 on field goals last season. He also went a perfect 47-of-47 on extra points over the last two seasons combined. That kind of consistency doesn’t happen by accident. That’s the product of thousands of hours of practice, a meticulous routine, and some kind of ancient kicker wisdom that the rest of us simply don’t have access to.

What Makes Folk’s Career So Remarkable

The NFL is a league obsessed with youth. Teams draft kickers in the later rounds, hoping to find the next decade-long starter. Most of those guys wash out within three years. The position has an incredibly high turnover rate, and yet Folk has been quietly booting footballs through uprights since 2007.

He originally joined the Jets back in 2010 and spent six seasons there before moving on. Life happened. Other teams. Other chapters. And then last year, he came back to New York like a guy returning to the neighborhood he grew up in. Instead of nostalgia, he brought a 96.5% field goal conversion rate.

Why Every NFL Team Should Be Taking Folk’s Call Next Week

Free agency in the NFL can get chaotic fast. Quarterbacks get all the attention, pass rushers get the massive contracts, and kickers sometimes get overlooked until a team realizes mid-August that their depth chart has a problem.

Any team that lets Folk slip through free agency without at least having a conversation deserves whatever shanked 48-yarder comes their way in December.

Folk Isn’t Done Writing His Story

There will come a day when Folk hangs up his cleats for good. He’ll look back on a career that most kickers could only dream about, spanning nearly two decades of NFL football. He’ll remember the makes, probably forget the misses, and walk away knowing he was one of the best at his craft.

But that day is not 2026.