With older kickers, you would figure they would fade away – Adam Vinatieri, Matt Bryant, Phil Dawson. They’re all in the 40s, but they haven’t been declining.
Logically, you would figure they would lose some accuracy and especially power. Other players lose speed and arm strength; you would think it would be the same with longer field goals.
But it simply hasn’t happened with these guys. Instead, they’ve gotten better from long range as they’ve gotten older.
Vinatieri, for example, hit a career-best 7 field goals from 50-plus yards. In each of his four previous seasons, he hit 3-4 of those kicks. In his first 16 seasons, Vinatieri didn’t have any seasons with more than 2 such field goals.
Same with Bryant. He’s kicked 3-plus field goals in four of the past five years. When he was under 36 years old, he didn’t have any seasons with more than one of those kicks.
Prior to turning 36, Dawson had one season with more than 2 field goals from 50-plus yards. He dipped some last year (just 1-2), but went for 7, 7, 4, 6 and 3 of those field goals in his previous five seasons.
It’s hard to believe.
These three kickers, from ages 36 to 41 (a combined 18 seasons) have gone 63 of 84 on kicks over 50 yards.
In their previous six seasons (Ages 30 to 35) they went 11 of 34 (that’s 2 more misses with well under half as many attempts).
Back in their 20s, these kickers went 13 of 19 on field goals of that length.
| BETTER WITH AGE | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age | Seasons | FG | FGA | Pct |
| age 23 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 50% |
| age 24 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 100% |
| age 25 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 100% |
| age 26 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 50% |
| age 27 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 50% |
| age 28 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 100% |
| age 29 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 67% |
| age 30 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 33% |
| age 31 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 50% |
| age 32 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 14% |
| age 33 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 30% |
| age 34 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 25% |
| age 35 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 50% |
| age 36 | 3 | 9 | 11 | 82% |
| age 37 | 3 | 11 | 11 | 100% |
| age 38 | 3 | 9 | 14 | 64% |
| age 39 | 3 | 17 | 26 | 65% |
| age 40 | 3 | 7 | 9 | 78% |
| age 41 | 3 | 10 | 13 | 77% |
| age 42 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 80% |
| age 43 | 1 | 7 | 9 | 78% |
These players have combined for 15 seasons with at least 3 field goals from 50-plus yards. On only one of those seasons was the kicker younger than 36 years old (Dawson as a 33-years-old in 2008).
| 3 FIELD GOALS FROM 50-PLUS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Year | FG | FGA | Pct |
| Dawson 37 | 2012 | 7 | 7 | 100% |
| Dawson 36 | 2011 | 7 | 8 | 88% |
| Vinatieri 43 | 2016 | 7 | 9 | 78% |
| Bryant 39 | 2014 | 7 | 10 | 70% |
| Bryant 41 | 2016 | 6 | 8 | 75% |
| Dawson 39 | 2014 | 6 | 9 | 67% |
| Bryant 37 | 2012 | 4 | 4 | 100% |
| Vinatieri 42 | 2015 | 4 | 5 | 80% |
| Dawson 38 | 2013 | 4 | 6 | 67% |
| Vinatieri 40 | 2013 | 4 | 6 | 67% |
| Vinatieri 39 | 2012 | 4 | 7 | 57% |
| Dawson 40 | 2015 | 3 | 3 | 100% |
| Vinatieri 41 | 2014 | 3 | 3 | 100% |
| Bryant 38 | 2013 | 3 | 5 | 60% |
| Dawson 33 | 2008 | 3 | 6 | 50% |
—Ian Allan