‘It matters what you do now’

Younghoe Koo has kicked at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field before.

He sank all three of his field goal attempts from 39, 22 and 34 yards, respectively. Then he drilled a 48-yard extra point in the final minute of last season’s 22-21 Atlanta Falcons win over the Eagles in September 2024.

“It doesn’t really matter what you have done or haven’t done at a certain stadium or in my career in the past,” Koo, 31, told the Daily News on Thursday. “It matters what you do now.”

What really matters is whether Joe Schoen, Brian Daboll and the Giants will give Koo the opportunity to do his job Sunday in South Philly.

It’s already incomprehensible that Koo, an NFL veteran, sat at home on the practice squad last week while Jude McAtamney missed two extra points in the Giants’ 33-32 choke job loss to the Denver Broncos.

Now, even with Graham Gano (groin) practicing and eligible to come off injured reserve, going with Gano — who is officially listed as questionable — feels like too much of a risk given how his gameday injuries have compromised this team in the past.

First question: Did Koo kick poorly in the Giants’ practice competition with McAtamney?

“I think I’ve kicked well,” Koo said. “My swing feels good. I came here for the [free agent] workout [on Sept. 23], kicked great. It’s like, if I wasn’t kicking great, I don’t know why I would still be here, right?”

Second question: Why wasn’t Koo active for the Denver game?

“I think that’s coach’s decision,” Koo said. “That’s way above me, right? I can just go out there and try to do my best. I don’t feel like I went out there [in practice] and did perform poorly or [anyone was] like, ‘He can’t do it, let’s get rid [of him].’ If I wasn’t doing my job, I feel like they would get somebody else in here.

“But what I was told,” Koo continued, “was Jude has been here, he was here last year, and he has more operation time, more time with the guys. So I was like, ‘Alright, that makes sense.’

Koo said McAtamney had done well in practice, too.

“And I think Jude has been kicking well in practice,” he added. “And it wasn’t like a crazy difference [between me and McAtamney] to be like alright one way or the other. So that’s kind of what it has been, and I’m just trying to focus on doing my best every day and see what happens, you know?”

So what now?

Daboll said Wednesday that “if Graham’s ready to go, Graham will be the kicker.” And Gano said “yes,” he is ready to go Sunday. But having him active as the Giants’ only kicker has a well-documented recent history of being disastrous.

Even Daboll acknowledged Friday that activating both Gano and Koo for the game is a possibility if Gano isn’t 100%.

“If we need to do it, we’ll do it,” Daboll said.

Gano was asked how he puts fans’ concerns aside about the prospect of a new injury popping up.

“I don’t,” he said. “I mean, I’m gonna play football. Yep.”

But if Gano isn’t completely healthy, it doesn’t make sense to dress him for the game at all.

That means Koo could be — should be — in line for a chance to kick for the Giants on Sunday.

“This league, you know how crazy it is,” he said. “You try to do your best and see what happens. With last game, and Graham’s now coming back, so now it’s like alright just stay ready for whatever comes, you know?”

Daboll had a close eye on Koo during the open portion of Friday’s practice when Koo, Gano and McAtamney all were on the field.

Koo shanked his first kickoff to the left, low and seemingly out of bounds. Daboll then walked up close to Koo and stood close to him, to Koo’s left, as he sailed a nice ball high in the air toward the end zone on his second try.

Then Daboll walked in front of Koo, still behind the coverage team, and watched a rep or two as the ball sailed over his head.

Special teams coordinator Michael Ghobrial said Koo has been doing enough at practice that it’s “consistent enough with having success on Sunday.”

Ghobrial also gave insight into why Koo’s acclimation process might not have happened overnight.

“He’s been here for the past few weeks, has gotten more comfortable with the operation of [holder] Jamie [Gillan] and [long snapper] Casey [Kreiter],” Ghobrial said. “He understands how we do things here, has kind of worked on some nuances coming from Atlanta that would allow him to have more sustained and consistent success.”

Those nuances, Koo said, mainly are related to the Giants’ preferred “operation” time on field goals — “every team’s kind of different with what they’re looking for” — and with the snapper and holder getting used to a new kicker’s “lean.”

That means how Koo likes the football “leaned” on a field goal hold. Every kicker has his own preference.

“Graham likes the lean a certain way. Jude likes the lean a certain way. We all have different leans,” Koo said. “So if Jude puts the ball on a kicking stick and I try to kick that, I’m probably going to miss that or mishit it. Because I don’t put the ball that way.”

“So now Jamie has to learn what my lean is and get the repetition to get that lean right,” he continued. “Because if he gives my lean to Graham, he’s probably going to mishit that. Or you have to make an adjustment to hit that ball differently, because everybody has a different swing.”

Koo said “from my experience, it does take a little time” to make that adjustment with a new team. In fact, he was a part of a Falcons process that was more accelerated than this in 2019

“When I first signed with Atlanta, my first game was Week 9 and the punter was hurt,” he said. “So it was the snapper, holder, kicker. Our third time kicking together was at the game. So I’ve been in that situation like, ‘Alright, let’s see what happens.’

“So I think this might be trying to avoid that part. So we have that time to build that consistent operation of Jamie learn[ing] my hold or the snap and operation time.”

All of that said, what’s maddening about Koo not being the Giants kicker last week in Denver is how reliable he has been from under 40 yards and on extra points during his eight NFL seasons.

Koo has made 175 of 182 extra points in his career, including a perfect 26-of-26 last season and 2-of-2 in his Week 1 for the Falcons this September. And he has sunk 104 out of 108 field goals from inside 40 yards.

He is 13 of 15 from inside 40 yards since the start of the 2024 season, and he is a perfect 52 of 52 from under 30 yards in his career.

“There’s a quote one coach put up for me that is, ‘You don’t rise to the occasion in pressure moments, you fall to the level of preparation,’” Koo said. “So you just prep and practice. It’s the same kick every time, whether it’s a 60 yarder or a PAT.”

Koo has been inconsistent from distance in his career.

He is only 48 of 63 on field goals between 40-49 yards since he entered the NFL in 2017 with the Chargers, including a combined 8 of 13 in 2024 and 2025. And he is 29 of 40 from 50 yards or longer, including 9 of 15 in the 2023 and 2024 seasons combined.

And the Falcons cut him for missing a game tying 43-yard field goal attempt in Week 1 of this season against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

But he also has the clutch gene: He memorably sank a 40-yard field goal as time at MetLife Stadium expired to beat the Giants, 17-14, in the infamous ‘Medium Pepsi’ game of 2021.

And he was the NFC special teams player of the week as recently as Week 16 of the 2023 season for going 5-of-5 on field goals in a Falcons win over the Indianapolis Colts.

He tried to play through a hip injury last season in Atlanta, however, so that hampered his performance and then his ability to stay on the field.

That’s how he ended up getting his pink slip this fall. And he doesn’t harbor a grudge. He knows it comes down to making and missing kicks.

“If you take the emotions out of it, it’s a performance business,” Koo said. “You gotta perform. Last year being hurt, playing through the injury and then going on IR for the last three games, lesson learned: don’t play through an injury, you know?

“So getting healthy was the main goal,” he said of the offseason.

Koo lost about 15 pounds and “to get the inflammation out” and take care of his body. Otherwise, his routine was the same, so he was ready for Atlanta to enter the 2025 season.

He just missed a big kick in a big spot.

“I was good in like a month, had a full offseason, a great offseason OTAs and training camp, and then just missed at the wrong time,” he said. “You don’t want to miss ever, but it just happened that way coming off not a good season, an injury and then I missed Week 1.”

“It was not a good time kind of thing, and I felt very good I could bounce back in Week 2, but I didn’t get that opportunity,” he added. “So once that happened, it was like, ‘I gotta go.’ You guys made that decision, so it was time to move on.”

So Koo returned to the area where he was raised for his next opportunity. He was born in South Korea but moved to Ridgewood, N.J., in middle school, a 25-minute shot north from East Rutherford.

And it’s possible the Giants will benefit soon from his experience in pressure-packed moments, the kind that the inexperienced McAtamney wasn’t able to handle last Sunday in Denver.

“If anything, you just hone in more into what you have to do,” Koo said of kicking in a loud and hostile environment. “People ask me, ‘How do you deal with the noise?’ That’s just white noise. If you’re worried about that, you’re worrying about the wrong stuff.”

“So as soon as I go out there, I’m thinking about my steps, my angle, my contact, the things I work on in practice,” he said. “So when you get there, you just do the same thing back to the preparation you’re thinking about … If it’s a game winner or whatnot, you’re still swinging the same ball as if you would at a high school field by yourself.”

Originally Published: October 24, 2025 at 2:44 PM EDT