The NFL is in a Golden Era of Kicking
Photo Credit: Bryan M. Bennett, Getty Images
As the NFL offseason slowly creeps towards the draft, one of the stories recently is the change to the kickoff, which was approved by the NFL’s competition committee recently. While there are a variety of opinions on the new rule, nothing has changed to the field goal, a form of scoring which today seems almost like a guarantee whenever many of the kickers trot onto the field. How do today’s kickers compare to those of the past?
In 2023, the league-wide field goal percentage was 85.9%, the second highest average in NFL history (2013; 86.5%). This was the third straight season with the average being north of 85%, which was the first occurrence in league history. As time goes on, it seems that the kicking gets even easier for these pros, as showcased by Philadelphia’s Jake Elliott last season, who nailed this 59-yarder in the pouring rain to force overtime.
The top eight in terms of all-time field goal percentage (minimum 100 career attempts) players are all recent names, with Josh Lambo being the only name who is no longer an active player, as he retired after the 2022 season. Baltimore’s Justin Tucker is the leader with a 90.183 percentage, the only player above the 90% threshold.
Iconic names of the past such as Adam Vinatieri, Jason Elam, and Sebastian Janikowski are nowhere near the top of the list in terms of accuracy, and they are only going to be further pushed down as players like Cameron Dicker, who has made 94.5% of his career field goals in just two seasons, reach the minimum attempts mark to be put on the leaderboard.
One correlation can be seen with the top of the leaderboard and the timing of these players. Seven players in the top eight have spent all of their career kicking extra points from 33 yards instead of 19 yards (Tucker spent the first three years of his career from 2012 to 2014 with the old extra point rule). The extra point change was enacted for the 2015 season and has stuck around since then.
What do extra points have to do with an increased field goal percentage? Austin Seibert, who currently kicks for the Jets, emphasized recently that the change ignited a higher level of focus in kickers around the league to hit an accurate ball when they didn’t have to think about being very accurate on extra points before 2015.
This increase in accuracy and distance will only continue to grow as the years go on. Recently, UFL kicker Jake Bates hit a 64-yard field goal, then followed it up with a 62-yarder a week later, showing that this increased kicking talent is prevalent throughout football, not just in the NFL.
As Justin Tucker’s career winds down, he has a great chance at hanging the cleats up as the only 90%+ kicker in league history. He has been the pioneer for modern kickers, and will most likely be one of dozens of kickers in that category a decade from now.
