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 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Player | FG | FGA | Pct |
Matt Prater | 36 | 45 | .800 |
Robbie Gould | 23 | 31 | .742 |
Stephen Gostkowski | 19 | 26 | .731 |
Blair Walsh | 24 | 34 | .706 |
Phil Dawson | 38 | 54 | .704 |
Justin Tucker | 28 | 40 | .700 |
Dan Bailey | 24 | 35 | .686 |
Stephen Hauschka | 16 | 24 | .667 |
Jason Myers | 10 | 16 | .625 |
Matt Bryant | 26 | 42 | .619 |
Adam Vinatieri | 34 | 55 | .618 |
Connor Barth | 17 | 28 | .607 |
Nick Folk | 23 | 39 | .590 |
Dan Carpenter | 24 | 41 | .585 |
Cairo Santos | 7 | 12 | .583 |
Graham Gano | 17 | 30 | .567 |
Ryan Succop | 15 | 27 | .556 |
Nick Novak | 16 | 29 | .552 |
Sebastian Janikowski | 55 | 100 | .550 |
Brandon McManus | 8 | 15 | .533 |
Caleb Sturgis | 12 | 23 | .522 |
Mason Crosby | 28 | 54 | .519 |
Greg Zuerlein | 18 | 35 | .514 |
Randy Bullock | 5 | 10 | .500 |
Chandler Catanzaro | 5 | 11 | .455 |
Dustin Hopkins | 5 | 11 | .455 |
—Ian Allan