Does the NFL's all-time leader in games, points and field goals belong in the Hall of Fame? Or are there other kickers who are more deserving of a place in Canton? Ian Allan explores.

I’m glad that Morten Andersen is one of the 15 finalists who’ll be considered for the Hall of Fame. As a disclaimer, I am a big fan of kickers. I spend a lot of time (a lot more than you realize) looking at the numbers and comparing them. Relative to how important kickers are to fantasy success, I spend way too much time on kickers.

As an aside, I am fuming right now. If you look at the results from the Fantasy Index Open (see yesterday’s post) you’ll see that I actually finished below average at the kickers position. I spent probably 10 times as much time looking/analyzing kickers as any of the other 208 people who entered that deal, yet over half of the people who just scribbled down 20 names in a kind of a estimated order beat me. I can’t explain that, and it’s eating me up inside.

But on to Andersen, and gauging whether he’s worthy of following Jan Stenerud as the second full-time kicker into the Hall.

Working in Andersen’s favor, he’s played in more games and scored more points than anyone in NFL history. He’s kicked more field goals. Per the Rick Gonsalves book, Placekicking in the NFL, Andersen’s field goals provided the margin of victory in 71 games, which is also a record.

He was one of the couple of kickoff guys for probably 10-15 years of his career. I don’t have the kickoff numbers for the ‘80s, but for the first six years of the ‘90s, he was 1st, 2nd or 3rd in touchbacks every year. He was a big dude who could really thump it.

Growing up as a Steelers fan, I also liked that he kickers with a Bradshaw-style facemask – that followed him to every team he played on.

Jim Mora Sr. cut him in a contract dispute, and that came back to haunt him. Andersen signed with the division-rival Falcons and in a game against his old team hit 3 field goals from 50-plus yards, which had never been done before.

But for me, if you’re going to put Andersen in the Hall of Fame, you’ve got to show that he’s better than the other kickers of his era. You’ve got to be able to pinpoint that he was doing things that other guys weren’t. And that’s tough.

If you want to look at pressure kicks – big kicks – that’s tough. Andersen didn’t win any Super Bowls or playoff games with memorable kicks. If you put him side-by-side against Adam Vinatieri in this area, he falls miles short. Vinatieri had the two snow kicks in the playoff win over the Raiders, and then won the Super Bowl against the Rams with a 48-yard field goal at the end.

Andersen kicked in a dome, and that has to be factored in. That’s a benefit. Gary Anderson’s career closely mirrors Andersen’s. They both entered the league in 1982, and they both kicked into this century. Anderson spent only five seasons with a dome-based team, and he hit 80.1 percent of his career field goals. Andersen spent all but three of his 25 years kicking inside a dome, and he’s actually slightly behind (79.7 percent).

Anderson wasn’t quite as good on kickoffs as Andersen (that’s my gut recollection) but he was definitely more accurate on field goals. If you want to set aside that he missed a 38-yard field goal that cost Minnesota a berth in the best Super Bowl that never was (15-1 Vikings against 14-2 Broncos) then Anderson is definitely more Hall-worthy than Andersen.

For kicking numbers, they’re hard to look at because Andersen played for so long. Kickers are a lot more accurate today than they were in the ‘90s, and they were far more accurate in the ‘90s than they were in the ‘80s. It’s a moving target, and that makes Andersen hard to grade.

I don’t have the numbers set up for the ‘80s, but I will go along with the premise that he was one of the best kickers of that decade. He had five straight seasons with multiple field goals from 50-plus, which was really remarkable at that time. I see a couple of seasons over 86 percent, but all of the others short of 80.

During the first stage of his career, Andersen definitely wasn’t as good as Nick Lowery, who was a frickin’ kicking surgeon in Kansas City – kicking ass despite working outdoors at Arrowhead. From 1982-1992, Anderson had three seasons over 80 percent on field goals. Lowery had seven such seasons in the same time period (over twice as many), with two years over 91 percent.

If Andersen gets in the Hall of Fame, Lowery would have to be shaking his head saying, “Hey, why not me?” Lowery’s career wasn’t as long, but when you adjust for the fields they were playing on, Lowery was better than Andersen.

I have the numbers of the ‘90s, so we can look at those. During that decade, 36 kickers attempted at least 100 field goals. Andersen ranked 15th in accuracy, at 79.3 percent. Pretty average. Top 3 were Lowery (84 percent), John Carney (82.4) and Norm Johnson (81.9). To me, this really works against Andersen. He was kicking in a dome, he was in the prime of his career, and over a dozen guys were more accurate on field goals.

You might argue that Andersen was making more long kicks, but that doesn’t really hold water. He made 22 field goals from 50-plus in the ‘90s. That tied Jason Elam (elevation) for No. 1, but Andersen was only 22-42 during that decade, 52.4 percent. There were 33 other kickers who attempted at least 10 field goals from 50-plus in the ‘90s, and a dozen of them converted a higher percentage. Seven were over 60 percent – Tony Zendejas, Doug Brien, Mike Hollis, Mike Vandejagt, Elam, Chris Jacke and Jeff Jaeger.

I also have the more current numbers. Andersen kicked through 2007, so we can look at how he performed in the 2000-2007 seasons relative to other kickers. During this eight-year period, 33 kickers attempted at least 100 field goals. Seven of them converted a higher percentage. Matt Stover’s up at 88 percent. Andersen is just short of 84.

During the 2000-2007 seasons, 27 players attempted at least 10 field goals from 50-plus. Andersen was good on only 5 of 11 in this period – only five kickers were worse. Leaders here were Jeff Wilkins (83 percent) and Vanderjagt (73 percent).

I am very much open to idea of putting more kickers in the Hall of Fame. And I will concede that if you look at any candidate closely enough, you will find flaws. There’s only one kicker, Stenerud, in the Hall, but he had historical miss in the Longest Game Ever Played (the one eventually won by Garo Yepremian on a field goal). Stenerud missed a 32-yarder in that game that would have ended it.

But as I push around the recent numbers, I don’t see enough separation between Andersen and the other candidates to merit putting him in. My leaning is that Nick Lowery is the most deserving of this bunch, and that Gary Anderson and Matt Stover might come in ahead of Andersen as well. With Mike Vanderjagt, you’re getting more quality but a shorter career. All of these guys belong in the Kicking Hall of Fame, but it would be tough to put one of them above the others for the regular Hall.


(And here are some of the supporting numbers that I cited).