NFL kickers' futility hit a new low last week

Before we close the books on Week 13, let's take a moment to lament the collective woe of the NFL's placekickers, who did something unprecedented this century.

In no other week have kickers missed as many field goals as they did in Week 13. Dustin Hopkins' first-quarter misfire for the Cleveland Browns on Monday night was the 24th miss. The previous low-water mark was back in Week 12 of 2001 when NFL kickers missed 23. In no other week in TruMedia's data, which goes back to 2000, have kickers missed more than 19 times (Week 8, 2001; Week 10, 2011).

Daniel Carlson missed three times for the Raiders in their two-point loss to the Chiefs on Friday, although they were all from at least 55 yards. Five other kickers missed twice, including Baltimore's Justin Tucker in the Ravens' five-point loss to the Eagles; Carolina's Eddy Pineiro in the Panthers' three-point overtime loss to the Buccaneers; and New England's Joey Slye in the Patriots' one-point loss to the Colts. Slye had the distinction of missing the shortest and longest tries, one from 25 yards out at the end of the first half and one from 68 yards at the end of the game.

Nine kicks were missed from 50-plus yards, but there were also 10 misses between 40-49 yards (including one block).

Those who watch RedZone can't get through a Sunday without hearing someone talk about how great kickers are from 50-plus yards. And that's true: kickers have made 71% of their tries from 50 yards or greater, while their success rate from 2000-23 was only 60.8%. With five weeks left in the season, it seems likely the league will set new marks for makes and attempts from 50-plus yards. (The current records are 158 makes and 230 attempts in 2023. Kickers only need 12 more makes and 24 more attempts to eclipse those totals.)

Following Week 11, we noted that kickers were still connecting at the fifth-highest rate in history, 84.9%. Their Week 13 efforts have now sunk the season-long average to 83.6%, which ranks only 13th.

Plenty of kickers are having outstanding seasons. Nine who have appeared in at least 12 games this year are above 88%: Jake Bates (DET, 95%), Nick Folk (TEN, 95%), Cameron Dicker (LAC, 93.1%), Chris Boswell (PIT, 91.9%), Chase McLaughlin (TB, 91.3%), Blake Grupe (NO, 90.9%), Will Lutz (DEN, 89.7%), Cam Little (JAX, 89.5%), and Matt Gay (IND, 88%).

It's the players at the other end who are attracting all the attention. Seven regulars are under 80%. Tucker is talked about as a future Hall of Famer, and he has seven seasons with a success rate of over 90%. But he's sitting at 70.4% this campaign. He's only made five of 14 kicks from beyond 50 yards in the last two years after hitting on 71% of them in his previous 11 seasons.

Although this year's kickers did set a new mark for total futility, Week 12 of 2001 still stands up for relative failure. Kickers last weekend attempted 86 field goals, while the 2001 cohort missed 23 of their 68 attempts, almost 34%.

Guy Spurrier is theScore's features editor.