Should we be getting concerned about Jake Elliott? originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
He’s about the last guy on the roster you’d expect to struggle.
Jake Elliott? One of the most accurate kickers in history?
Coming into the season, Elliott was the 8th-most-accurate kicker in NFL history at 87.2 percent (minimum 100 attempts), and he was 13th-most accurate from 50 yards and out at 70.3 percent (minimum 20 attempts).
And he was getting better every year. Over the last two seasons, he was 55-for-60 overall and 12-for-14 from 50 and out.
But here we are.
Elliott missed a 44-yard field goal, a 51-yard field goal and a PAT Thursday night in the win over the Commanders, and he’s now just 14-for-19 on field goal attempts this year.
He’s missed five field goals in his last eight games after missing five in his previous 41 games.
Among 32 kickers this year who’ve attempted at least 10 field goals, Elliott ranks 26th.That’s 73.7 percent. His career percentage has dropped from 87.2 to 86.1 percent and in just the span of eight weeks he’s dropped from 8th to 11th on the all-time list.
The guy who made a 61-yard game-winner in his second career game, who made insanely clutch 42- and 46-yard field goals in the fourth quarter of a Super Bowl, who came into the season as one of six kickers in NFL history to make two field goals from 61 yards and out is buried in the worst slump of his career.
Elliott has missed all four of his attempts from 50 yards and out this year after making 15 of his previous 17 going back to late 2020.
His 44-yard miss Thursday night ended a streak of 24 straight makes from inside 50 yards.
And his missed PAT Thursday was only his fourth in his last 178 attempts going back to 2020.
It was the first time in his eight-year career he’s missed three kicks in a game. Last year he missed three kicks all year.
Are you concerned? Eagles special teams coach Michael Clay isn’t.
“He’s such a competitor and such a good kicker you almost take it a little bit for granted when he’s out there; it’s an automatic,” Clay said Tuesday. “I have such supreme confidence in Jake. At times, it’s just not your day.
“We’d probably be a little bit more on edge if the ball was sprayed all over the place. But if you saw the three kicks, they missed in the exact same spot right off that left upright. But it was a draw and it just kind of overdrew on him with a little bit of wind.
“When the spray chart is all over the place, and you don’t really have an answer for that, I think it’s a little bit more worrisome. When the spray chart is right there within a couple inches, that’s more of, ‘I can fix this with my aiming point,’ more than anything else.”
Three of Elliott’s misses this year have been from 57, 57 and 60 yards, so it’s not like he keeps missing chippies. But those are becoming routine kicks. The rest of the NFL is 20-for-25 from 57 to 61 yards this year and no other kicker has missed more than one.
The Eagles beat Washington by 26-18 and thanks to the seven points he cost the Eagles, a game that should have been a blowout was a one-possession game at the end.
For what it’s worth, Elliott did make a 21-yarder and 31-yarder after the two field goal misses. So there’s that.
“For him to come back and hit the field goals before the half … it just shows how resilient he is not just as a player but as a person.”
Clay said Elliott was at the NovaCare Complex Monday – the players’ day off during the mini-bye – working out on his own.
He knows he has to be better. He got away with missing three kicks against Washington, but against the Rams? Ravens? Steelers? You might not be so lucky.
“Jake is such a professional and I don’t think anybody is a bigger critic than Jake on himself,” Clay said. “He’s going to come back and work (Wednesday) like he always does, and put his best foot forward and get us ready to go.
“Because we all know, in these tight-game situations, especially in the later half of the season, it comes down to a big kick or put the lead into a two-score game. We have supreme confidence in Jake going forward and I know he’ll have supreme confidence going back in there.
“He just wants to get back out there and help the team in any way he possibly can.”
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