Miami Dolphins special teams coordinator Chris Tabor spoke about why the team has kept Zane Gonzalez in the building to compete with Riley Patterson.
Miami Dolphins place kicker Riley Patterson set the single-season franchise kicking record when he knocked in 93.1 percent of his field goals in 2025. The previous record was 92.3 percent, set by former kicker Jason Sanders.
Despite Patterson's strong year, the Dolphins brought in former Atlanta Falcons kicker Zane Gonzalez to be the direct competition to Patterson. While having competition may sound like an odd route to take, Miami special teams coordinator Chris Tabor broke down the benefit of having "two NFL kickers."
Initially, Tabor was asked about the missed 43-yard kick from Patterson, and whether he would judge that against Gonzalez making that same field goal.
"Here's how I look at it. Like right now, it's early. It's early on. And uh I feel very fortunate. I think that we have two NFL kickers. I really do.
"And at the same time, I told him, I said, I kind of feel like I'm a coordinator for two teams because I think one of them's going to make our team, the other one, I think could make someone else's team. So, at the same time, I think I got to make sure our goal is to make sure that they're ready to go week one," Tabor said.
On one hand, it makes sense as to why Tabor would want a kicking competition. As has been the case since general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and Hafley took over, they have preached competition at every level.
While that is true to a certain degree for most positions, it makes sense why the new brass would not want to rest on their laurels. Patterson may have had a strong 2025 season, but that does not mean he cannot experience a dip.
Gonzalez was also a very accurate kicker in 2025 as well, securing an 86.6 percent kicking accuracy. He also made the 43-yarder that Patterson did not at first.
Special teams are an integral part of football, and the game is played in three phases, which is what Tabor also brought up.
Without a strong kicking unit, a team can leave valuable points on the board.
Tabor also indicated that he does not want to judge Patterson or any other player for missing right now, as the Dolphins have had six weeks off from football.
"The other thing is this: we're working right now on just getting it down. I mean, we were gone for six weeks, right? So, the snap hold, we're still working some of those mechanics, but that got tightened up a little better today. It's still not it's still not game ready, but it needs to pick up another tick next week. And then obviously it has to grow as this competition begins to take off," Tabor said.
Tabor was with the Buffalo Bills in 2025, and the coach has nearly 20 years of experience teaching special teams. The Bills were a top-10 unit in multiple categories, and that is where the Dolphins are attempting to get to.
Patterson and Gonzalez will simply have to outkick one another to see who will win the job for the 2026 season. As Tabor put it, the silver lining is that the Miami special teams have two potential quality kickers to choose from, and the best will be given the task of making crucial field goals.
