I’m surprised how much kickers continue to improve. Most of them are pretty automatic now, and even on the long-range kicks, they’re expected to make them.

If you go back to 1994, there were 24 field goals made from 50-plus yards. That’s for all teams for the entire season. Teams went 24 of 66 from 50-plus yards that year (a success rate of 36 percent).

Nowadays, those aren’t challenging kicks. Over the last six years, there have been an average of 94 field goals from 50-plus per season, with kickers converting 62 percent of them.

There are 26 active kickers in the league right now who have attempted at least 10 field goals from 50-plus. All but three of them have converted over half of them.

Matt Prater leads the way, up are a remarkable 80 percent success rate. Five others have hit better than 70 percent.

Justin Tucker comes off a remarkable season; he hit all 10 of his kickers from 50-plus last year.

FIELD GOALS FROM 50-PLUS YARDS
PlayerFGFGAPct
Matt Prater3645.800
Robbie Gould2331.742
Stephen Gostkowski1926.731
Blair Walsh2434.706
Phil Dawson3854.704
Justin Tucker2840.700
Dan Bailey2435.686
Stephen Hauschka1624.667
Jason Myers1016.625
Matt Bryant2642.619
Adam Vinatieri3455.618
Connor Barth1728.607
Nick Folk2339.590
Dan Carpenter2441.585
Cairo Santos712.583
Graham Gano1730.567
Ryan Succop1527.556
Nick Novak1629.552
Sebastian Janikowski55100.550
Brandon McManus815.533
Caleb Sturgis1223.522
Mason Crosby2854.519
Greg Zuerlein1835.514
Randy Bullock510.500
Chandler Catanzaro511.455
Dustin Hopkins511.455

—Ian Allan