Why NFL field goals are getting longer, and what’s changed this season

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — The 50-plus-yard field goals that once were a rarity in the NFL are now as routine as far shorter kicks a generation ago. The range for many kickers now exceeds 60 yards, changing late-game strategy in a major way.

The kicking revolution has sparked questions about whether the balls are juiced.

Not quite, but there is a major difference this year, with teams now having the chance to prepare kicking balls before game day and practice with the same balls they use in games. The added length that that gives kickers had Philadelphia defensive coordinator Vic Fangio comparing it to the home run explosion during baseball’s steroid era starting in the late 1990s.

“It’s almost like they need an asterisk here,” Fangio said. “It was the live ball era or the asterisk for those home runs (Barry) Bonds and (Sammy) Sosa and (Mark) McGwire were hitting. The way they’ve changed the ball, the NFL, the kicking ball has drastically changed the field goals.”

Fangio’s comparison might be a bit hyperbolic, with kickers saying the more broken-in balls travel only a few yards farther, but even that could put records for long-distance field goals in jeopardy.

There already have been four kicks made from at least 60 yards this season — one shy of the single-season record — with Tampa Bay’s Chase McLaughlin hitting a 65-yarder against Fangio’s Eagles in Week 4, just 1 yard shy of Justin Tucker’s record set in 2021.

Dallas’ Brandon Aubrey made a 64-yarder in Week 2, and Pittsburgh’s Chris Boswell and Minnesota’s Will Reichard also made kicks of at least 60 yards.

Fangio predicted Aubrey will eclipse the 70-yard barrier this year.

Aubrey said he believes the biggest change is the more consistent balls providing more peace of mind.

“The nice part about the rule is now you get to the point where you don’t have to think about the balls,” he said. “You don’t have to be, ‘Is this ball going to be in good shape or not?’ Now it’s, ‘OK, the balls are going to be what they’re supposed to be.’”

NFL has more long kicks than ever

Long-distance kicks have become far more prevalent as the quality of kickers has improved thanks to more training and specialized coaching. The NFL has set records in each of the last four seasons for made field goals of at least 50 yards, with the total reaching 195 in 2024 — doubling the total from every NFL season until 2015.

Kickers are making 72.5% of field goals from at least 50 yards — nearly double the rate from three decades ago.

“I think it’s definitely an advantage for specialists this year,” said 49ers long snapper Jon Weeks, who is entering his 16th season in the NFL. “You’re starting to see the field-goal distance line back up a little bit. That’s just kind of natural. It’ll be exciting to see what some of these big-legged kickers can do.”

While the trend toward longer kicks has been a steady one the past two decades, it has increased even more so far this season following the change in rules for the “K ball,” with the 28 made kicks from at least 55 yards the most ever through five weeks and more than in any entire season until 2022.

History of the K Ball rules

The change this year came after seven teams — Baltimore, Cleveland, Houston, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Minnesota and Washington — made a proposal to reduce the stress on equipment staffs on game days.

Before this season, balls designated for use in the kicking game were shipped directly to the officials and brought to the stadium on game day. Teams then had a 60-minute window to prepare three kicking balls, using only a wet towel, a dry towel and a special ball brush.

Now, teams were given 60 “K balls” before the season to prepare for games, with each team getting three each game that are approved by the referee. No ball can be used in more than three games.

The initial rules for kicking balls were first put in place in 1999 after specialists were allegedly doing all sorts of things to manipulate the ball, including using microwave ovens, dryers and saunas to soften the leather and make them easier to kick.

Initially, only the officials were allowed to prepare the balls, and kickers and punters complained they were too slick. That changed following the 2006 season, with teams getting a short window on game day to prepare the balls, after Dallas quarterback Tony Romo dropped a snap as the holder on a potential game-winning field goal in a playoff loss to Seattle.

Now the balls for the kicking game can be prepared in advance — just like the balls for the rest of the game — but teams are mostly limited to using the towels and a special Wilson-branded brush. Balls can’t be subjected to high heat like dryers or microwaves and the shape can’t be altered at all.

What’s the impact of the new balls?

Titans special teams coach John Fassel downplays the impact of the new rules, saying the approximately 20 minutes the equipment staff previously had to prepare each of the three kicking balls was sufficient.

Jets kicker Nick Folk equated the difference in the balls to buying a new baseball glove each week and breaking it in for an hour, compared with having a glove that has been broken in over a long period of time and now fits just perfectly.

“I’m happy it happened,” Folk said. “We get to kind of do just like quarterbacks get whatever they want to do to the ball, as long as it looks like a football and the logo’s still there and all that stuff, I think they’re pretty lenient with that. It’s a very welcoming thing to be able to kind of look at a ball and be like: ‘All right, I want to kick this one this week, I want to kick this one this week.’”

The impact isn’t solely on field goals. Punts are traveling farther, too. After the average dropped by 1.5 yards from 1998 to 1999 when the first “K balls” were put in use, there has been a gradual uptick since the rules first changed in 2007.

The average punt now travels 47.7 yards, which would have been the individual single-season record as recently as 20 years ago.

San Francisco punter Thomas Morstead said he lets the equipment staff deal with the ball preparation but does see a difference, especially compared with when he first entered the league in 2009 and some home teams would try to sneak fresh balls in for the visitors.

“I’m not like a scientist back there measuring things out,” he said. “I just give them general things like, hey, if the leather is nice and soft and the ball’s relatively beat in, and we want to keep the PSI as high as possible, which is 13.5, then I’m good.”

Niners kicker Eddy Pineiro estimates the broken-in balls add maybe 3 or 4 yards to the distance on kicks, calling the difference meaningful but not as impactful as kicking at a high altitude in Denver.

“It’s normal now to kick a 60-plus-yard field goal,” said Pineiro, who hit a career-best 59-yarder this past week but once kicked an 81-yarder in practice in college at Florida.

“It’s not like: ‘Oh my God. Wow!’ like it used to be. It’s kind of expected. But that’s part of the game. The game’s evolving for the better, and kickers are making more kicks in and farther kicks. If you don’t have a broken-in ball, it’s a lot harder to hit a 60-yard field goal.”

AP Pro Football Writers Schuyler Dixon, Rob Maaddi, Teresa M. Walker and Dennis Waszak Jr. contributed to this report

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