Evolution in accuracy
Field goal accuracy in the NFL has steadily improved over time. [4] At the beginning of the league's start in the 1920s, to the first Super Bowls in the 1960s, kickers' accuracy was between 40 and 55%. In the 1970s and 1980s, leading kickers typically converted around 70–75% of attempts. By the late 1990s through the 2000s, kickers' accuracy increased to around 80–85%. From the 2010s to 2020s, many of the league's most accurate kickers regularly hit the high 80% with some exceeding 90%. [5]
Kicking accuracy by field goal distance from 1999 to 2025 [6] | 20–25 yds | 25–30 yds | 30–35 yds | 35–40 yds | 40–45 yds | 45–50 yds | 50–55 yds | 55–60 yds | 60+ yds |
|---|
| 1999–2003 | 97% | 93% | 85% | 80% | 71% | 60% | 56% | 24% | 0% |
| 2004–2008 | 99% | 93% | 88% | 85% | 77% | 68% | 57% | 41% | 13% |
| 2009–2013 | 97% | 96% | 91% | 85% | 79% | 75% | 64% | 47% | 26% |
| 2014–2018 | 99% | 96% | 94% | 89% | 84% | 73% | 67% | 58% | 23% |
| 2019–2023 | 99% | 97% | 95% | 91% | 82% | 74% | 71% | 57% | 36% |
| 2024–2025 | 99% | 95% | 97% | 90% | 81% | 69% | 76% | 64% | 27% |
A 2015 article in FiveThirtyEight entitled "Kickers are Forever" found that kicker accuracy has increased over time, and there is a nearly perfect correlation between year and accuracy. [7]
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