Kalyn KahlerFeb 27, 2025, 06:00 AM ET
INDIANAPOLIS -- A scout squinted to get a better look at the placekickers in black jerseys marked with difficult-to-read neon green numbers.
"Who is No. 18?" he turned around and asked the fellow special teams aficionados seated in the end zone of Lucas Oil Stadium.
No. 18 had just nailed a 55-yarder from the left hash, and many of the coaches in the seats didn't even have the full roster of specialists, so his identity was a mystery. Only six kickers were officially invited to the combine, and this one wasn't among that small group.
"It's the German kid," said another special teams staffer.
"Germany?" the first coach asked.
No. 18 was Lenny Krieg, 22, of Berlin, a former soccer player turned Stuttgart Surge kicker. Krieg's older brother studied in Wisconsin for a year when he was in high school and he came back addicted to American football, eventually becoming a football coach. When Krieg was 19, he set aside his soccer cleats and started training as a kicker. His brother wanted him to play on defense, but he was hesitant. "I didn't want to get into this whole collision stuff" Krieg said, so he started teaching himself how to kick a football via Youtube tutorials and Instagram, searching "how to kick a field goal."
He kicked for his brother's German league team for a season and after a successful debut, he moved up to the European League of Football, commuting 6.5 hours by train each week from March to September to Stuttgart from Berlin for practice and the game. That gig barely paid enough to cover the rent, so after he finished up school he worked in real estate, but quit his job once he landed a spot in the International Player Pathway, which expanded to include specialists for the first time last year.
Krieg caught the attention of multiple teams in the stadium when he went toe to toe with the American kickers Wednesday afternoon, and a perfect 14 of 14 field goals, from 35 to 55 yards -- the only kicker who didn't miss.
Another scout at the workout ranked Krieg as his third-best kicker that day, despite his somewhat unconventional swing. And two special teams coaches agreed that this year's bunch of international specialists, particularly the four IPP kickers, Krieg, two kickers from Ireland, and another from Italy, looked even stronger than last year's inaugural group.
The soft-spoken Krieg had the best day of them all and outperformed some of the kickers who received an actual combine invitation.
"He was better than most of the Americans," said one pro scout.
Krieg made it to Indianapolis this week because of a meeting that took place two years ago, at the NFL Films office in New Jersey. During that winter of 2023, a small group of special teams coaches met with the league's football operations staff to discuss special teams plays, like the upcoming kickoff changes. Also on the agenda was the idea of taking the specialists out of the combine and creating a separate standalone workout so more players could be invited.
With just one long snapper in previous years, "you were really kind of handcuffed as far as the number of field goals and punts you could do," said Ravens senior special teams coach Randy Brown, who was at the meeting.
"Special teams coaches had been frustrated over the years," said Broncos special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi, also at the meeting. "If you look through the NFL rosters, more than 60% of the specialists didn't go to the combine."
Because of the limited number of combine invites, special teams coaches spent time flying around the country to work out specialists individually before the draft to narrow down their list of prospects. It wasn't an efficient process. Why not make it easier on the coaches and give the players more visibility?
Brown said Troy Vincent, the NFL's senior EVP of football operations, loved the idea and suggested adding international players to the mix. Brown took charge of organizing the workout, and Irish kicking coach Tadhg Leader worked with NFL UK to find a group of international kickers. Leader's bunch were mainly Gaelic football players and he trained them into combine-ready kickers in just a few months' time.
The youngest of last year's group, Charlie Smyth, signed with the New Orleans Saints last April, kicked a game-winner in the preseason, and spent the year developing on the team's practice squad, filling another new feature -- the extra practice squad spot designated specifically for international players.
In 2024, four specialists were drafted and the NFL said another 10 signed free agent contracts with clubs. By Week 1, there were seven rookie specialists on active rosters and two on practice squads.
This year's showcase included 27 specialists- four kickers and two punters invited to the combine, and an additional nine kickers (four IPP), six punters (one IPP) and six long snappers.
"That's why you do this showcase," says NFL Vice President of Football Development Roman Oben. "You end up finding those guys that would have signed rookie contracts and been in camp and it alleviates the burden of having these coaches go all over the country to these one-off kicking camps."
"You're helping assemble a group of kickers, punters and snappers that would not have been in Indy otherwise in some sort of singular event."
"It's the ability for people to get eyes on us when they wouldn't be on us normally," said TCU long snapper Brent Matiscik, whose older brother, Ross, is the Jaguars long snapper. "At pro day, you might have 20 teams. It's very rare to have all 32. So to have all 32 eyes on you is a really cool experience, and it can help tremendously."
Last year, the specialist showcase was scheduled as the combine's final on-field event, on Monday night. Many special teams coordinators stayed, but most other coaches and scouts and team personnel had gone home by then.
Kicker workouts can be dry and monotonous, but Brown set it up as a competition, with the kickers split into two teams, one led by his son, Eagles assistant special teams coach Tyler Brown, and one led by then-Titans special teams coordinator John Fassel, now with the Cowboys. The two teams competed kick for kick, with music blasting in the stadium to simulate the noise of a gameday environment, and multiple cameras moving around to record the workout and also mimic a game.
Afterward, Brown said the league office was pleasantly surprised that the workout had been so high-energy and entertaining.
"Here we are Monday night at 7:35 p.m. with 12 people in the stands," Brown said after last year's combine. "I can promise you this, next year we are going to be early in the combine."
This year's second-ever specialist showcase kicked off the combine -- pun intended -- as the first on-field workout of the week. Team Fassel and Team Brown battled each other closely, and at halftime, when the kickers swapped hashes, Bills special teams coordinator Chris Tabor shouted at Fassel, "My money's on your team!"
Just two kickers, one selected from each team, faced off from 60 yards -- Arizona kicker Tyler Loop (one of the six combine invite specialists) made a 60-yard field goal, and then Florida State kicker Ryan Fitzgerald (also one of the combine invites) matched him to secure Team Brown's win, 77-74.
The specialist showcase evaluation instructions stated that the most accurate kicker from each team would get to face off against the other at a distance determined by the coaches. Krieg had the best record of the kickers on Team Brown, but did not get picked to compete in the final faceoff.
This year, with more lead time to scout kickers and get them NFL combine ready, coaches were less surprised by the international kickers -- a group that still has a lot to prove. Leader, who is now the NFL IPP's kicking and punting lead, was able to bring a much younger group of international prospects. Ross Bolger, 23, from County Laois in Ireland, is draft-eligible. He kicked off and punted at Idaho State for two seasons and is now transitioning to field goal kicking. One club personnel in attendance said Bolger was intriguing as an international practice squad spot because of his kicking and punting versatility.
Mark McNamee, 25, from Dublin, was a goal keeper in Gaelic football before trying a kicking session with Leader. He is available to sign as a free agent any time. Jonatha Loria, 24, from Milan, Italy, is also able to sign with a team, and played for the Hildesheim Invaders of the German Football League.
Krieg is also able to sign with a team at any time. He said he realized the vast nature of the NFL when he first walked into 63,000-seat Lucas Oil Stadium the day before the workout. His experience playing in actual football games is a bonus for an international prospect, but he said the largest crowd he'd ever been in front of was about 35,000. And on Tuesday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell walked past him.
"That's the moment where I was like, OK, the combine is a really big thing," he said.
Before the workout, Krieg called his family back home in Berlin, and talked to his Stuttgart Surge coach. "It really helped me to get into the zone and feel comfortable, remember that I belong here," he said. "It's not just luck or just a field trip."
