NFL Kickers better than ever
What’s unique about kickers’ success this season is how frequently coaches have trusted them — with justification — from length.
NFL teams have attempted 177 field goals of at least 50 yards, already the third most ever and on pace to break the record set last year.
This article is on point about kickers being trusted now beyond 50 Yards even when the game is not on the line and risking field position should they miss because they are expected to make it.
Kickers have made 67.2 percent. Jan Stenerud (1967-1985), the first kicker elected to the Hall of Fame, made 66.8 percent of his field goals — from all distances.
Of the 4 current NFL Hall Of Fame Kickers Morten Andersen (1982-2007) has the Highest Career Percentage at 79.7%, Jan Stenerud (1967-1985) at 66.8%. George Blanda (1949-1975) at 52.3%, and Lou Groza (1946-1967) at 54.9%.
The Best College Kicker each year receives the Lou Groza Award.
Groza was 1 out of 13 from 50+ yards out, 7.69%. Blanda was 8 of 38, .210%. Stenerud was 17 of 64, .266% and Andersen was 40 of 84, .476%.
With each generation of kickers there has been a drastic improvement in overall accuracy as well as accuracy from beyond 50 yards.
The new expectations of an NFL Kicker is to be 85%+ out of all of their kicks which is harder to do when being asked to kick beyond 50 yards more often than in the past.
As it stands, Atlanta Falcons kicker Younghoe Koo (90.1 percent) tops the all-time list for accuracy. But that’s only because Justin Tucker, widely regarded as the best kicker ever and a rare placekicking lock for Canton, hooked a 44-yarder left in the Ravens’ Week 12 victory over the Chargers, dropping his career percentage to 89.9.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/12/09/nfl-kickers/
This part of the article grew stale in only 24 hrs.
Younghoe Koo missed 2 FGs Sunday, both from 50+ Yards out, to drop his career mark to 89.1% while Justin Tucker made his 3 FG attempts, all from less than 50 yards out to increase his career mark to 90.0%.
Of the 2 games played Monday night, 3 out of the 4 kickers missed one of their attempts. They weren't the only kickers to miss this week. The Saints own kicker Blake Grupe missed a chip shot himself. Matt Gay of the Colts missed a 38-yard FG and an Extra Point. Riley Patterson of the Lions missed an Extra Point.
Although kickers are now viewed as automatic, none of them are perfect from any distance and while they may be more accurate overall, they would be even more accurate overall if they weren't relied on with frequency to attempt FGs from 50+ Yards out.