NFL Kicking Woes

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

5 hours ago, SlimShady'sGhost said:

#KickersArePeopleToo

 

its been a rough outing this year. 

 

 

...wonder if an extra point being in essence a 33 yd FG takes its toll on a PK......in addition to true FG's.......these guys may be fragile and overworked......

[ProcessTruster]

7 hours ago, thenorthremembers said:

It may just be this year is an anomaly.  The league average has been around 84% the last five years, its 80% this year.   I would imagine some of the same kickers that got the league to 84% last year, are still kicking this year.   This is the lowest its been since 2003.  I imagine youll see it go back up next year.

80% vs 84%?  if that is the comparison then this is a non-issue

[Xwnyer]

7 hours ago, Coach55 said:

Is it just me, or has the quality of NFL kickers deteriorated materially this year.  Some teams' kicking situations are so bad to the point where they have become a revolving door (Haushka hasn't helped us, but we are in way better shape than others). My question is, why do some of these teams keep going after consistently crappy kickers (NY Jets for example) and not go for a retired vet such as Dan Carpenter, who is only 33 and has put up pretty consistent numbers his entire career. 

deflated balls ?

[Hebert19]

I'd argue that there are no woes.  Instead the league was blessed with good kickers for about 10 years or so where 85 to 90 percent was expected.  Instead the real average for history to league of more like 80.  The down year comes from guys who were solid getting older and no new young kickers taking their place. 

[MJS]

It's been going on for a couple of years now. But yes, it is a growing problem.

[Orlando Buffalo]

I believe a few years back the NFL stopped letting kickers prep ball the same ways they use to- maybe as result of deflategate?- making the balls just slightly less perfect for kickers. Of course it could also be more long kicks are being attempted be previously. 

[BarleyNY]

9 hours ago, Coach55 said:

Is it just me, or has the quality of NFL kickers deteriorated materially this year.  Some teams' kicking situations are so bad to the point where they have become a revolving door (Haushka hasn't helped us, but we are in way better shape than others). My question is, why do some of these teams keep going after consistently crappy kickers (NY Jets for example) and not go for a retired vet such as Dan Carpenter, who is only 33 and has put up pretty consistent numbers his entire career. 

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/we-thought-nfl-kickers-would-keep-getting-better-but-this-year-theyre-struggling/

 

“For decades, NFL placekickers have been on a seemingly never-ending quest for perfection. Conversion rates increased relentlessly each year like numbers on the National Debt Clock. But a funny thing happened on the road to forever. The field-goal success rate this season is at its lowest level since 2003. And the decline of 4.2 percentage points to 80.5 percent from 2018 to 2019 is the greatest year-to-year drop in efficiency since that from 1975 to 1976, dinosaur days when square-toed kickers still roamed.”

[row_33]

They B worded that kicking was too good

 

now they B word it isn’t good enough

 

B word B word B word

Edited November 16, 2019 by row_33

[Ethan in Cleveland]

Context is everything.  Until the bad miss last week he had made 44 in a row under 40 yards.  And all of his other misses have been from 50+ yards this season.  McD is putting him in bad situations.  He's not as good as he was two years ago but he is plenty good enough.  As other's on this board have said, unless they need a FG to tie or win late in a game, they should start thinking about playing 4 down offense until they hit the opponents 30 yard line.  If they know they will go for it on fourth down then it opens up a lot more possibilities on 3rd down

[Freak-O]

8 hours ago, OldTimeAFLGuy said:

 

 

...wonder if an extra point being in essence a 33 yd FG takes its toll on a PK......in addition to true FG's.......these guys may be fragile and overworked......

 

It's still very few kicks for a period of 3 hours. Compare it to any soccer player. They can't be overworked.

[Buddo]

Tbh, I suspect it's a whole variety of factors, including having to kick further on a regular basis on kick offs etc. where they will be being told to clear end zones.

 

My view on this would be that technically, they are having to put more effort into every kick, and in doing so, it makes them a touch more prone to errors.

 

Ideally, you would want to kick with exactly the same form on every kick, but I don't think they are able to do that in todays NFL.

[Doc Brown]

13 hours ago, Reed83HOF said:

 

Let's provide some context.  He hasn't had a 20 to 30 yard field goal attempt right now because the Bills are awesome on the red zone.  He's missed one between 30 and 40 (out of three) and one between 40 and 50 (out of seven).  He's missed all three from 50 plus.  One was nearly impossible in the wind against Philly near the end of the half (56 yarder).  One was a 62 yard attempt against the Bengals.  The other......well we all saw last week.  He's also nearly perfect on extra points with his one miss a block (18 of 19).  I'm not panicking.

 

 

[CSBill]

It seems to be a league wide epidemic. We can credit two wins (Jets, Titans) to bad opposing kickers, and one loss (Browns) to Bills games. I still general faith in Hauschka, I think he is prefect on extra-points this year, but he is becoming a concern.

 

And I wonder, it seems like there have been opportunities for 50 yard+ kicks that McDermott is passing up. Has he lost faith in his kicker?

[ILBillsfan]

20 hours ago, BigSky said:

Who was the kid we had in camp this year? Seemed like he did pretty good. With House struggling so much it might be worth taking another look at him. 

He made the kick to force ot in the Seattle game but he missed badly to win it from 47.  Paid particular attention to see how he did knowing the issues from the Cleveland game

[Saxum]

On 11/15/2019 at 1:05 PM, Reed83HOF said:

I hate long FGs anyways, unless it is 3rd and a million from the 35 you should go for the first (based on the game situation of course)

 

Since it is never "3rd and a million from the 35" obviously that means you never go for it.

[NoSaint]

On 11/15/2019 at 10:53 AM, thenorthremembers said:

It may just be this year is an anomaly.  The league average has been around 84% the last five years, its 80% this year.   I would imagine some of the same kickers that got the league to 84% last year, are still kicking this year.   This is the lowest its been since 2003.  I imagine youll see it go back up next year.

I’m also not sure the average fan is picking up the difference in their teams kicker going 20/25 vs 21/25 as much as it being luck of the games you saw or coverage on high light shows 

Edited November 16, 2019 by NoSaint

[benderbender]

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

9 hours ago, CSBill said:

It seems to be a league wide epidemic. We can credit two wins (Jets, Titans) to bad opposing kickers, and one loss (Browns) to Bills games. I still general faith in Hauschka, I think he is prefect on extra-points this year, but he is becoming a concern.

 

And I wonder, it seems like there have been opportunities for 50 yard+ kicks that McDermott is passing up. Has he lost faith in his kicker?

Gase’s googlies bringing bad mojo to NFL kickers, particularly the AFC East!  ?

[SoCal Deek]

So the real question is if House Money is no longer able to do it from beyond 45 yards why does the coach keep trotting him out there? Just go for it! Aren’t they tracking this stuff at OBD? 

[row_33]

Bills went from a recent coach who wasn’t aware that kickers can be good from 50 + to one who settled for a 53 yarder just to tie it