I’m starting the write-ups for the first round of the playoffs, and I can’t remember a worse year for kickers. Outside Wil Lutz, there just isn’t much there.
Lutz is great. He scored 144 points in the regular season, 2nd-most in the league behind Harrison Butker. Lutz was a top-7 scorer in each of his first three seasons.
But after Lutz, it tails off pretty dramatically. Dan Bailey scored 121 points in the regular season, but his five games with double-digit points all came against teams with losing records. He averaged only 4.8 points in his five games against teams with winning records. He’ll be on the road against the Saints. They finished with a winning record in the regular season.
Nick Folk, I suppose, makes the most sense as the 2nd-best kicker on the board this week, but the Patriots looked pretty iffy at times in the regular season – particularly on Sunday. And they used four different kickers during the regular season. But New England at least have scored 120 kicking points – 11 more than five of the other teams playing this week.
The Titans are the strangest kicking team of all. Their offense caught fire under Ryan Tannehill, but they scored only 74 points on field goals and extra points, the fewest by a playoff team since Tampa Bay in 1997 (with Michael Husted). To find any other teams with as few as 74 kicking points, you have to go 40 years back to 1979, with the Bucs (Neil O’Donoghue) and the Denver Broncos (the late Jim Turner).
KICKING POINTS (teams playing this week) | |||
---|---|---|---|
Team | XP | FG | Pts |
Kansas City | 45 | 34 | 147 |
New Orleans | 48 | 32 | 144 |
Baltimore | 57 | 28 | 141 |
San Francisco | 49 | 30 | 139 |
Dallas | 46 | 30 | 136 |
Arizona | 34 | 31 | 127 |
Atlanta | 29 | 32 | 125 |
Tampa Bay | 43 | 27 | 124 |
Minnesota | 40 | 27 | 121 |
New England | 39 | 27 | 120 |
Jacksonville | 19 | 33 | 118 |
Pittsburgh | 28 | 29 | 115 |
LA Rams | 42 | 24 | 114 |
Detroit | 35 | 26 | 113 |
LA Chargers | 35 | 26 | 113 |
Denver | 25 | 29 | 112 |
Seattle | 40 | 23 | 109 |
Carolina | 31 | 25 | 106 |
Green Bay | 40 | 22 | 106 |
Cincinnati | 24 | 27 | 105 |
Cleveland | 30 | 25 | 105 |
Philadelphia | 35 | 22 | 101 |
Houston | 40 | 20 | 100 |
Indianapolis | 33 | 22 | 99 |
Miami | 29 | 23 | 98 |
Washington | 21 | 25 | 96 |
Buffalo | 30 | 22 | 96 |
Chicago | 27 | 23 | 96 |
Oakland | 34 | 19 | 91 |
NY Jets | 23 | 19 | 80 |
Tennessee | 50 | 8 | 74 |
NY Giants | 35 | 12 | 71 |
—Ian Allan