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Ian Allan

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Kicking on the rise

Posted Jun. 16 at 11:00 AM

I’m playing around with some kicking numbers this morning.

Kickers are tending to get better and better – more accurate and better range. As good as they’re getting, in fact, I’m surprised that nobody yet has exceeded that 63-yard field goal record of Tom Dempsey’s (Jason Elam tied it, but nobody hasn’t been it). That probably will happen, I figure, before the end of the 2009 season. If such a bet exists in Vegas, I suggest you take it.

As You can see by the cumulative numbers before, kicking in general is on the rise. Teams around the league have averaged at least 107 kicking points three years in a row. Only once before in the NFL history had that mark ever been reached. And in each of the last three years, scoring by kicking has accounted for at least 32 percent of all points.

The chart below shows all of the league’s 16-game seasons (the 9-game and 15-game seasons of the strike-shortened 1982 and 1987 seasons have been removed).

NFL KICKING POINTS, 1978-2007
With year, average kicking points per team, and percentage of scoring scored by kickers:

Season Points (Pct.)
1978 season 78.4 (26.7%)
1979 season 84.0 (26.2%)
1980 season 88.4 (27.0%)
1981 season 93.0 (28.1%)
1983 season 98.4 (28.2%)
1984 season 98.9 (29.1%)
1985 season 102.2 (29.7%)
1986 season 96.5 (29.4%)
1988 season 97.0 (29.4%)
1989 season 101.0 (30.6%)
1990 season 98.8 (30.7%)
1991 season 99.6 (32.8%)
1992 season 93.5 (31.2%)
1993 season 103.4 (34.6%)
1994 season 100.4 (31.0%)
1995 season 108.1 (31.5%)
1996 season 105.8 (32.4%)
1997 season 103.9 (31.3%)
1998 season 105.2 (30.9%)
1999 season 106.4 (31.9%)
2000 season 104.7 (31.7%)
2001 season 103.4 (32.0%)
2002 season 105.0 (30.3%)
2003 season 105.6 (31.7%)
2004 season 102.8 (29.9%)
2005 season 107.8 (32.7%)
2006 season 107.0 (32.4%)
2007 season 110.9 (32.0%)

I’ll have more on kicking points later today.

—Ian Allan


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