Options
Greatest field goal kicker of all time.
Goldenage
Posts: 3,278 ✭✭✭✭✭
in Sports Talk
I’m asking because I have no clue who it is. I guess the criteria is..........
Accuracy
Longevity
Post season performance ( but not to be used to his advantage if another kickers team didn’t make the playoffs enough).
0
Comments
Morton Andersen has to be way up there.
Adam Vinitieri obviously comes to mind, but I also think Morten Anderson was pretty darn good. My personal favorite was Sebastian Janikowski.
I am a little biased to Vinitieri personally.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
No field goal thread would be complete without a look at the longest field goal in NFL history. So here we go, the longest field goal in NFL history was this 64 yarder by Denver Broncos kicker Matt Prater.
Adam Vinatieri would be my choice e over all others. The guy was money in the biggest moments no matter what the weather conditions were. He’s one of the unsung heroes of the Pats first dynasty run that deserves a ton of credit.
Eric
Erikthredd’s MJ Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/publishedset/395035
Erikthredd’s Nike Air Jordan Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/basketball/key-card-sets/nike-poster-cards-michael-jordan-1985-1992/alltimeset/408486
Vinatieri and Justin Tucker would be my choices.
PSA HOF Baseball Postwar Rookies Set Registry- (Currently 77.97% Complete)
PSA Pro Football HOF Rookie Players Set Registry- (Currently 19.26% Complete)
PSA Basketball HOF Players Rookies Set Registry- (Currently 6.02% Complete)
Vinatieri gets a lot of credit for having made big kicks but he's only 25th all-time in FG% and has only made one kick over 55 yards. His career % is roughly the same as Matt Prater but Prater has a far-stronger leg with numerous makes of 58+ and the league record of 64.
Justin Tucker is the current #1 in FG% at 91%. No one else is at 90 or above. He also has numerous makes of 55+ and once went 10-for-10 from 50+ during a season. And, unlike Prater and Vinatieri, he hasn't played half his career for dome teams.
So, right now anyway, I'd go with Tucker.
Tucker is the guy I would want if a game was coming down to a win if the FG was made. 100%
Lou Groza. Not even debatable .
http://www.unisquare.com/store/brick/
Ralph
Jason Hanson, the long time kicker for the Sorry Detroit Lions was a great kicker for a terrible organization for his whole 21 yr career. I would have to think that he would be in the talk of being one of the best all time.
My personal favorite was Jason Elam as he also played for my favorite team and also would be up there as one of the best too.
What can be said about Justin Tucker, place kicking, and NFL scouts when the most accurate place kicker in NFL history was undrafted out of the university of Texas. How did they all miss this guy ? Is there no emphasis on kickers ?
He didn't show all THAT much in college. 83% success, which is good but nothing special. Teams put almost no emphasis on kickers in the draft so lots of good ones get overlooked.
I believe Jan Stenerud was the first soccer style field goal kicker.
Before him the straight on kick was the preferred method.
NIck Lowery was a great field goal kicker.
I'd probably add game-winning kicks for criteria
He must have come into the league a little before Garo Yepremian. I guess we can label it as a European influence in American football.
Stenerud was one of the best, if not the best, for quite a long time.
It's pretty remarkable how much kicking has improved, even if you take out the dome effect and rules protecting the snapper. Stenerud is considered an all-time great - he missed a third of his kicks. With those numbers now, he'd get cut a week into training camp.
Could you compare Stenerud’s accuracy rating to his peers of that era and let me know where he ranks. Having watched football in the late 60s and 70s, I know that the fields were in bad shape. AstroTurf was only in a few stadiums in the mid to late 70s, and domes were no where to be found. Kickers today have it a bit easier than back then.
this could be a multi-tiered debate, divided by eras with Straight-on kickers and Soccer-style kickers.
mentioning Lou Groza is interesting since he came from an era when players had a premium placed on actually playing, there wasn't the platooning and specialty players that we have today. "The Toe" was not only the kicker, handling kick-offs/field goals/extra points, but he was a starting offensive tackle and defensive tackle for for the bulk of his career. that makes him a "three-way player" which is unheard of today.
another similar player from the same time was George Blanda.
He trails the leaders in that era significantly. He led the league in FG% in 1968 & 1969. In the 1970s, he had %s of: 71.4, 59.1, 58.3, 63.2, 70.8, 68.8, 55.3, 44.4, 66.7, and 52.2. The leaders for those years had numbers anywhere from 75-85%. He was in the top ten for FG% in the 70s just 3 times (3rd, 4th, and 9th).
Without a doubt the conditions were a lot worse back then. But, even by the lesser standards of the era, his numbers aren't good.
He also led in 1981 and 1984. He had a stronger leg than many of the other kickers and attempted longer kicks if memory serves, that could be why his numbers aren't as good. He attempted 64 kicks of over 50 yards in 19 years. In 13 years Don Cockroft attempted 20. In 14 years Yepremian tried 22.
Morten Anderson kicked for 25 years.