ALLEN PARK — Detroit Lions kicker Jake Bates has missed six field goals and two extra points, with three blocked attempts, this season.

But the Lions aren’t sweating that because they’ve seen Bates continue to grow, hit most of his kicks in practice and answered in those clutch moments.

Dave Fipp, the team’s special teams coordinator, said they “clearly have a very, very good player.” And if Bates ended up on the street, there would be a ton of teams lining up to sign him right away. On top of that, Fipp laid it out plainly that the Lions would have a tough time replacing that caliber of player, and they have the utmost trust in Bates to handle that role for now and the foreseeable future.

“I think I’ve kind of said all along, you’re going to have some ups and downs,” Fipp said on Thursday. “All these guys do year to year, even older players have ups and downs. And a lot of that is that the sample size is small. Anytime you have a handful of kicks blocked, it’s obviously — you don’t even have a chance to make the thing. So, your numbers are going to go down.

“I really am not worried about him at all. I think he’s a great player. He’s going to be an incredible player in this league; he’s a tremendous talent. Like I said, we’d be dying to find a guy like him if we didn’t have him. And that doesn’t mean he’s not going to have some ups and downs; he’s going to have that throughout the course of his career. I think, is he growing? Is he getting better? I think in hindsight for him, he’ll probably look back at this year, and it’ll be one of the best years he’s ever had just in terms of growth.”

And those frustrated with some of the misses this season need to remember the countless names the Lions tried at kicker before Bates arrived. He has provided stability and long-term viability at a position the Lions were struggling to find since letting Matt Prater join the Arizona Cardinals back in 2021.

Bates made 26-of-29 field goals in his first season, nailing a league-high 64 extra-point tries. This season, he’s hit 21 field goals on 27 kicks, and once again leads the NFL with 49 made point-after makes. He’s hit from distance. He’s hit in the clutch. And he’s continued to grow as the placekicker under the league’s new kickoff rules, showing some elite consistency in that department.

“He’s probably learned a lot throughout the course of the year, what he has to do, anything you might have to do differently,“ Fipp said. ”A lot of times when you’re having just a lot of success, and you really aren’t getting a lot better, you’re just kind of doing the same thing over and over, and it’s working out, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re playing at that level either.

“So, I think obviously we want to make every kick that we can, or every kick we go out there for. But I do think — I have a lot of confidence in him, I totally believe in him, I know he’s a great player. I will not waver, not one bit. Anyway, he’s got to continue to grow and develop, and we’ve got to do a better job, like I said a week ago, I’ve got to do a better job with the protection, too. That’ll help him out.”

Fipp said Bates has the highest percentage of makes in practice of any kicker he’s ever coached. The veteran special teams coordinator has coached special teams in the NFL dating back to 2008. He said it’s “not even close” when it comes to percentage of makes in practice throughout his coaching career.

Yes, the Lions want Bates to make most, if not all, of his kicks, obviously. But they know they found their kicker of the future and aren’t doubting him one bit.

“I would say a lot of my faith is based on the fact that I’ve seen him kick a million kicks and we’ve charted a lot of them, so we have hundreds of kicks charted now on him,” Fipp said.

“And it’s got to show up in games, but same thing I said with (Eagles kicker) Jake Elliott back in the day is like, what these guys do in practice will slowly translate into the game. It might not be exactly the same, but it’ll be closer to that than it will be something else.”