Value of A Good Kicker

Say what you want but if your team has a kicker that can make FGs from the 50 yd line on a regular basis it changes the game. People are not talking much about KC because of their down year last year but I expect them to be right back near the top.

Boz has been great and Steelers gotta hope the greatness continues if they struggle to get to the RZ this year.

Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker connected on a 69-yard field goal on the final play of the first half in his team’s preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Saturday. But it will never find a spot in the record books.

As preseason statistics are not official, Butker’s official career long remains 62 yards — a kick he made against the Buffalo Bills in the 2022 regular season. And the NFL record is still 68 yards, set by Jacksonville Jaguars kicker Cam Little last season in the team’s Week 9 win over the Las Vegas Raiders.

“That’s probably as good as I can hit a ball,” Butker said of his 69-yarder.

“I haven’t really been practicing (long field goals) in practice,” he added, “so that’s good to know I can just dial that up.”

Butker has been one of the premier kickers in the NFL over the past decade. His 2024 contract extension made him the highest-paid kicker in NFL history, a mark he held until this offseason, when he was passed by Ka’imi Fairbairn of the Houston Texans, Brandon Aubrey of the Dallas Cowboys and Chris Boswell of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

 

Kickers show the most positional improvement across NFL history. Accuracy and range have climbed steadily for decades. Overall field-goal percentages rose from the 40-55% range in the early Super Bowl era (and even lower before that) into the high 80s and low 90s for many modern specialists. Success rates from 50+ yards have roughly doubled or more compared to a generation ago. Average attempt and make distances have stretched out, 60-yarders have gone from extreme rarities to relatively common occurrences, and the depth of reliable kickers is much deeper than it used to be.Chris Boswell fits the “gold standard” description. He’s a possible Hall of Fame kicker. There really is a solid tier of very good options league-wide now. The days of a clear handful of elite kickers and a lot of liability below them are largely gone.

I’d like to make their job a bit tougher again. There used to be a rule that got banned. A player for the Kansas City Chiefs (the 6-foot-10 tight end Morris Stroud) used to leap and swat long field goals that would have barely cleared the crossbar. He and others tried it enough times and and swatted a few. The NFL put in a goaltending rule prohibiting the practice. I say this is an exciting play.! It would not happen often but it can happen. Bring it back. And pretty please bring back the number 00.