Are NFL kickers too good? Should the NFL adjust ?
 

Get rid of extra points?

Narrow the goal posts?

Put a different point value on field goals based on distance?

Discuss.....


http://mmqb.si.com/2013/10/28/matthe...quarterback/5/

At some point, the NFL’s going to have to acknowledge the efficiency of field-goal kickers is just too good. And the league is either going to have to narrow the goalposts or put a different point value on field goals from different distances.

When kickers are making 19 of 20 field-goal tries, on average, from inside the 40-yard line (stunning but true) and two-thirds of their attempts beyond 50 yards (and they are: 45 of 68, or 66.2%), you know this isn’t what the game is supposed to be. Kicking field goals has just become too easy.

This easy, as the season nears the midpoint:

From inside the 40-yard line: 230 of 245, 93.9%.
From between the 40- and 49-yard line: 126 of 153, 82.4%.

And the biggest waste of time in sports is the point-after. Six were missed all season last year, and this year, only two of 524 have gone awry. It is positively insane that the NFL doesn’t either eliminate the PAT, move the snap way back from the 2-yard line, or force teams to go for two. Something. Anything. For years, it’s been a nothing play, and the Competition Committee refuses to do anything tangible about it.

I know some will say, “Wait until the weather turns. Then you’ll see the percentages go down.” And they will. But by how much? The field goal is simply not challenging enough. Do we want the game to be so boring, to lack any suspense, when a kicker steps up to make a field goal? I can tell you the founding fathers of this game never dreamed the kickers would be so great that they would be good on 87 percent of their field goals through nearly half a season.

Ban Kickers ?

Can we stop ****ing with the game for five minutes?

Anything to help the Chiefs lose in the first round of the playoffs!

They could make it illegal for white guys to kick. That'd **** things up a little.

White only D-Backs would boost offensive output.


Goodell is working on it as we speak.

The fact that kickers are so good almost makes them irrelevant. If you keep the system the way it is, then bad kickers will kill you since everyone else has a suitable one, but at the same time you're not going to invest a high pick in one since they're common.

If you make kickers' jobs harder by giving them narrower goalposts or otherwise differentiating, it'll make kickers more important in the game. A team with a dominant kicker will see the same advantage as a team with a dominant running back or wide receiver. I'm not quite sure I want that.

Ban football.

I like the idea of forcing them to go for two for the PAT.

Herm Edwards does not approve of this idea

Would make QBs even more important.

i can dig that.

as far as long field goals staying at 3 points or even going up to as many as 4 points from ...say 55+, and making kicks under 30 yards just 2 points, i think we could have some sort of defensive, offensive and kicker renaissance.

The game is fine.


Don't **** with it.

who cares. the rules are fine.

I wouldn't screw with field goal kicks...but the extra point play is the most boring play in all of sports.

pretty much spot on. and i like the idea. kinda makes it more cool to be a kicker. i mean, they are often the top scoring player on teams in games, and when there is a final score like 15-9, the focus is oh man they had a great defense out there, when your kicker did put up 5 field goals, and gets no recognition half the time.

Settling for 3 points is punishment enough.

PATs should be moved to be a 30 yard kick though, at least.

If anything, field goals make it too easy for guys like Alex Smith to compete.

I say get rid of field goals entirely.

points based on distance is dumb. Punish a team that moves farther down the field? why not just widen the has marks?

and blindfold the kicker on the pat

i think the extra point is a complete waste of time.

keg softball rules. Kicker does a kegstand then kicks the pat

also plays into the fgs later in the game as the kicker gets more wasted throughout

think of it more like a jump shot vs a 3 pointer, where a touchdown is a slam dunk with nutsinyoface

Shaun Suisham says no.

2arena4u?

Every thread isn't about Alex Smith you daft ****. Just shut the **** up.

I'd think eliminating the XP would make results even more unpredictable. It'd be more exciting, but you might end up with more upsets. You get in a close game and someone like Manning or Brady loses because they convert 1 two pointer and the other team has a good day and gets 3.

But Justin Medlock's life would be fantastic all of a sudden

It's very odd that the extra point has survived. The odds of making it are probably 99.5% or higher. Plus, it's very anti-climactic to kick an extra point for a win or a tie after scoring a touchdown.

They should just give teams seven points and give them the option of risking one of those points by going for eight. So you get 7 points for a touchdown, and if you go for another point you end up with either 8 points (successful) or 6 points (unsuccessful).

I fail to see the problem with that.

Agreed. Let teams elect to take the extra point or go for 2.

THIS

That makes the most sense, but...

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/kTGco82JKHo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Or you could adopt the inverse of the 'white TD' rule my friends and I adopted in Madden.

If a white guy scores a TD, it counts for 2 TDs (fortunately I've not really been a Madden player in a long time so I never had to worry about the scourge that would've been Wes Welker).

Make FGs from black guys worth 6.

Justin Medlock might have suddenly become useful.

It'd be exciting. I don't know that it would weed out poor QB play. I don't think anyone here would argue that Alex Smith can make plays within a 5-10 yard zone. Plus we have Charles who can get 2 yards on any well designed run. If we matched Denver score for score... the entire game would come down to 3 or 4 two yard plays.

that would be when I head to the bathroom, or go get a smoke, or beer etc

Of course, the NFL obviously doesn't mind the XP and field goal plays. Scoring plays where your stars have no chance of getting hurt.

Rob Gronkowski hates you.

man....I remember seeing that live. I thought the kicker would've drowned himself upon return to NO.

I think I remember two games in my 40+ years of football watching where a missed extra point at the end was the game-losing play. That was certainly the most entertaining one.

IIRC, this happened in Week 16 and the Saints would have been alive for the playoffs in Week 17 if they won the game, but they lost and were eliminated.

I remember it was some big deal. It was jaw-dropping either way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_City_Relay

The Saints, at 7-7 entering the game, were attempting to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2000. However, they needed to win both of their final two games to have a chance at qualifying for the postseason. While the Saints led early on in the game 3-0 after a John Carney field goal, the scoring had been mostly dominated by the Jaguars. With just seven seconds left at the end of regulation, the Jaguars had built a 20-13 lead on the Saints.

The Saints were on their own 25-yard line looking at second down and 10. Quarterback Aaron Brooks passed the ball to the right side of the field to receiver Donté Stallworth, who caught the pass at midfield. Stallworth then bounced off a tackle attempt by Jaguars cornerback Fernando Bryant and turned inside and broke two more tackles. The clock had already reached zero, and Stallworth pitched the ball to the 34-yard line to Michael Lewis who ran the ball to the 25-yard line of Jacksonville. He then turned and pitched the ball to Deuce McAllister, who ran to the Jaguars' 20-yard line. McAllister then pitched the ball to the right side of the field to Jerome Pathon, who caught the ball at the 24-yard line of Jacksonville. Brooks, who had hustled all the way downfield, then laid a block on the last Jaguars defender and Pathon dove into the end-zone.

There was a lengthy delay while the officials determined that all of the ball transfers (after the pass to Stallworth) were indeed legal laterals. All the Saints needed was a John Carney extra point to send the game into overtime.

Carney lined up to kick the extra point, hit a dead push, and the kick sailed wide right. The reaction of Saints play-by-play radio announcer Jim Henderson became legendary: "NOOOO!!! He missed the extra point wide right! Oh my God, how could he do that?" Due to the play, the Jaguars won the game 20-19.

Earlier in the season, Coach Haslett had stated to the media that he trusted Carney so much, that he'd even stake his life on him. When reminded later that day of those same comments, Haslett stated, "Then I'd probably be dead right now. He's one of the great all-time kickers. I never would have guessed this would happen."

With the loss, the Saints fell to 7-8 on the season and were eliminated from contention for the 2003 NFL playoffs. However even if the Saints had won in overtime, they would have been eliminated from the playoffs, as the Dallas Cowboys won their tenth game of the season that day (9 was the highest possible number of wins the Saints could have had if they won) and the Seahawks eventually won their tenth game to gain a wild card. The Saints would, however, finish their season on a high note the next week with a 13-7 home victory over the playoff bound Dallas Cowboys. For the Jaguars, the victory would lift them to a 5-10 record. They would go on to lose the next week, 21-14, to another NFC South team, the Atlanta Falcons.

The River City Relay later went on to win the 2004 Best Play ESPY Award.

If we got rid of kickers then what would white children all over America have to dream for?

PATs are a waste. No one would consider Succop an elite kicker and he's never missed one in his career.

They need to move the kickoffs back to where it used to be. But that's about it.

If you screw with the pts of a FG...or make a longer FG worth more, then you're going to see teams purposely take a negative play and down the ball so that they can try for more points at the end of a game. You can not allow that to happen.

LMAO

And foreigners.

How about this... require the kicker to be a girl!

So make FGs snapped inside the 10 worth 4, From the 11-30 worth 3, and anything outside the 30 worth 2.

They could do away with the holder and make kickers use the drop kick.

Good point. There could be built in incentives to lose yardage on third and long just to get an extra point or two out of the field goal.

Okay. I got it. The kicker has to weigh more than any other player on the team.

I'm starting to feel like Succop is becoming one of the best. He's iffy from 50+ but aren't they all? He's money inside that.

MVP2

Extra point stats:

Jan Stenerud (1967-85)
580/601 - 96.5%
In 1976 he missed 6 PATs! (27/33)

Nick Lowery (1978-96)
562/568 = 98.9%

football should be decided with feet kicking stuff.

Holy cow. A kicker would get fired for that in today's NFL.

^

This