Checking in on the Lions' kicker battle

The Detroit Lions' kicker battle got off to a bit of a slow start last week. Both Nate Freese and Giorgio Tavecchio had some struggles at the beginning of training camp, and the misses were really starting to pile up before the two started to find some consistency.

As the second week of training camp gets rolling, one kicker seems to be inching ahead in the battle for this starting job, and it's not the one who was drafted by the Lions.

Nate Freese was 3-for-5. Giorgio Tavecchio was 5-for-5 and has made 16 in a row

— Kyle Meinke (@kmeinke) August 4, 2014

As usual, the disclaimer here is that one or two misses in a single practice aren't going to decide the kicker battle. The overall body of work for each player is more important, and what happens in the preseason should be a bigger factor than what happens in practice.

With that said, Tavecchio does seem to be outperforming Freese right now. Freese came into this battle with a bit of an edge simply because the Lions spent a seventh-round pick on him, but Tavecchio has been quite good after shaking off that slow start. If Tavecchio continues to make field goals as consistently as he has lately, he could establish himself as the clear favorite to win the Lions' starting kicker job going into Saturday's preseason opener.