Kickers are as good as ever these days, yet some of the NFL’s true standouts are suddenly struggling

OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — This is supposed to be a golden age for placekicking in the NFL.

Try telling that to the fans in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Cincinnati right now.

Justin Tucker, Jake Elliott and Evan McPherson — three of the more dependable kickers in the league in recent years — are in slumps that have reached a crisis point. It’s a jarring development not just because of what these players accomplished previously, but because this is an era when misses have become increasingly rare.

“It’s certainly frustrating, especially when we know that these (Ravens-Steelers) games come down to the wire, like this one did today, that I let a couple get away,” Tucker said after missing two field goals in the Ravens’ 18-16 loss to Pittsburgh last weekend.

“But, like I’ve said before, the only thing that we can do is just get right back to work and focus on making the most out of our next opportunity.”

A five-time All-Pro, Tucker has been a phenomenon for most of his career. His combination of leg strength, accuracy and clutch performance gives him a case as the greatest of all time at the position, and he’s stood out even as kickers throughout the league have raised expectations.

Kickers league-wide have made 84.9% of their field-goal attempts this season. That’s down a tick from last year’s 85.9%, but still ranks among the most accurate seasons in NFL history. And on attempts of 50-plus yards, kickers are converting 71.9% of the time in 2024. Thirty years ago, that figure was below 40%.

While the rest of the league has caught up to kickers such as Tucker, he’s also taken a step back. He’s already missed six field goals this season, and two weeks ago the Ravens had to overcome a missed extra point in the fourth quarter of a win over Cincinnati.

“He’s going to get it figured out. We have coaches. We have technique. We look at the tape,” Baltimore coach John Harbaugh said. “He’s practicing well. He’s got to kick it straight.”

Tucker did make a game-tying 56-yard kick against Cincinnati last month, in a game the Ravens eventually won in overtime. In that same game, McPherson missed a 53-yarder that would have won it for the Bengals.

When McPherson came into the league in 2021, he went 9 of 11 from 50-plus yards during the regular season — then made all 14 of his field-goal attempts in the playoffs. He’s been far more erratic this season.

With the game tied Sunday night against the Los Angeles Chargers, McPherson had fourth-quarter misses from 48 and 51 yards, and the Bengals went on to lose 34-27.

“He knows to make those kicks,” star receiver Ja’Marr Chase said. “That’s why we paid him those bucks — to make those kicks in crunch time.”

The Eagles are in a better spot than the Ravens and Bengals — Philadelphia has won six straight. But Elliott has given them a little to worry about. He missed two field goals and an extra point in a win over Washington on Thursday night.

“We have so much faith in him,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “This team believes so much in Jake Elliott because of his track record and who he is and the teammate he is and the captain he is.”

After earning second-team All-Pro honors last season, Elliott signed a four-year, $24 million extension in March. That was followed by big extensions for Cleveland’s Dustin Hopkins (three years, $15.9 million), Kansas City’s Harrison Butker (four years, $25.6 million) and McPherson (three years, $16.5 million).

Elliott has missed five field-goal attempts this season, and Hopkins and McPherson have missed six each. Butker has kicked fine but recently needed surgery on his non-kicking knee.

There’s enough time left in the season for some of these struggling kickers to steady themselves, and certainly their track records suggest that may happen, but for teams such as Baltimore and Philadelphia in particular, it’s highly likely they’ll be in the playoffs. And when that happens, the kicking game will be magnified.

At the beginning of the season, few would have expected that the Ravens and Eagles would have any problems in that area. Now it’s a real concern.

“He’s definitely our best option, and he’s going to make a lot of kicks — I really believe that — going forward,” Harbaugh said. “But it’s up to him. It’s up to him and the guys he works with every day to make those balls go straight.”

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