In September, Brandon Aubrey of the Dallas Cowboys kicked a 65-yard field goal, the second longest in N.F.L. history. It was hardly a fluke: So far this season, he has made nine field goals of 50 or more yards. Just 20 years ago, the Cowboys did not make a single field goal of 50 yards all season (trying only twice).
It’s evidence of how a once rare offensive option in the N.F.L. has become a new standard: the long field goal kick.
Through the first 10 weeks of the season, there have been 153 attempts of at least 50 yards, compared with just 58 in the same period in 2004. The frequency of shorter field goals has stayed about the same.
The reason for the change? Kickers are better than they used to be.
They’re more consistent: The success percentage for kicks under 40 yards has gone from 89 percent in 2004 to 97 percent so far this season.
And though kickers have gotten more precise across the board, the greatest improvement has come with long kicks — distances that a generation ago were essentially attempted only in desperation.
Kicks of 50 or more yards now have a success rate of around 75 percent, nearly double the rate in 1984.
But why are kickers better?
Michael Husted, who kicked in the N.F.L. for nine seasons and now runs a kicking academy, said he originally developed his technique as a young player through trial and error. It wasn’t until he entered the league in 1993 that he had access to game film, and he tried to replicate great kickers like Morten Andersen, who played 25 seasons and made seven Pro Bowls. (Andersen’s long-kick success rate was 48 percent, which today would be below the league average.)
Husted said that by the time he left the league, his kicking form was “completely different.” He focused much more on getting power from his entire body rather than just his legs.
That increased power is a big contributor to accuracy.
Long field goals used to frequently fall short of the goal posts. So far this year, just three attempts of 50 or more yards have been marked as “short” in the official play-by-play data.
“People learn from watching other people kick a lot,” Husted said. “Kids come to my kicking camp who have learned everything off of YouTube.”
Husted also credits specialization with the improved pool of players. In the past, young athletes may have played several sports and practiced kicking only during football season. Now they’re practicing year-round.
All this has led teams to change how they think about whether and when to attempt long field goals in a game.
Attempts of 55 yards or more used to be reserved for end-of-half situations. Of 12 such tries in the 2004 season, 10 came with less than two minutes to go in either half, when the downside for missing was minimal. This season there have already been 52 attempts of 55 yards or more, with 37 of them coming before the two-minute warning.
It’s unclear how much better kickers can continue to get, though the remarkable improvement has led some to speculate the league should narrow the posts to make field goals harder.
In the meantime, the increased frequency of long field goals shows no sign of slowing. The record for 50-yard-plus attempts per season was broken in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 (even accounting for the addition of a 17th game in 2021). At the current pace this year, the record is set to be broken two weeks before the end of the regular season.
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