New England selected Borregales in the sixth-round of this year’s draft.
As New England Patriots special teams coordinator Jeremy Springer was on the hunt for his next potential kicker over the last few months, one trait stood above the rest.
“The guys that have been doing it for a long time, they got a different mentality,” Springer said weeks ago. “They just go out there, they kick balls, and they just do their job and they don’t overthink. They don’t overtrain, they have a routine, they stick to it. They’re consistent and they show up every day and they do their job.
“Those are the ones that usually do a good job around the league from what I’ve seen so far.”
Springer’s search perhaps ended in the sixth-round of the 2025 NFL Draft, as the Patriots selected Miami kicker Andres Borregales with pick No. 182.
After meeting with Borregales multiple times throughout the pre-draft process — including a stop at his Pro Day where he connected on a 65-yard field goal — it was clear the 23-year-old’s attitude fit the bill.
“As a kicker, I had this saying. It’s a, “one shot, one kill” mentality. You get one shot just to make a field goal,” Borregales said. “It just comes down to short-term memory. If you miss one, OK, so be it, on to the next, and just continue that streak. Even if it is a game winning kick, celebrate for a time because you got to enjoy the good times too. The very next day, now it’s time to get back to work because you never know what comes in the future.”
That way of looking at things proved successful for Borregales, who was viewed by many as the top overall kicker in this year’s draft. Borregales left Miami connecting on 86 percent of his kicks, including a career-best 94.7 percent hit rate in his senior season — with a new long of 56 yards.
As he now heads to Foxboro, Borregales will enter a positional battle with veteran John Parker Romo, a friend who he has trained with in the past. If the rookie wins the job new challenges will await, such as kicking in New England weather after spending his collegiate career in South Florida.
Borregales is ready to prove he can handle it like a former Patriots legend at the position.
“All my life, I looked up to Adam Vinatieri, a legend, honestly. Especially all those kicks in the snow and clutch kicks in the snow, actually. I can’t wait to experience that,” Borregales said. “I know a lot of people thought that, obviously being from Miami, I can’t handle the cold. I think I can prove people wrong about that.”