USA TODAY International Edition
A brotherhood of peril: Life at NFL’s shakiest spot
‘It’s a kick-to-kick proposition every time we take the field’
Zane Gonzalez was in no mood to be consoled.
Then the Browns’ kicker, he was sitting on the team bench in Mercedes-Benz Superdome, head buried in his hands after missing his fourth kick (two extra points and two field goals on the day) with 3 seconds on the clock in a 21-18 loss to New Orleans on Sept. 16. Gonzalez, whose 43-yard field goal try in overtime against the Steelers was blocked by linebacker T.J. Watt the previous week, had a pretty good idea he’d be out of a job the next day. (He was.)
One would have thought Gonzalez was radioactive given the wide berth given by his soon to be ex-teammates. But Saints kicker Wil Lutz and punter Thomas Morstead came across the field to offer him hugs and words of encouragement.
“Great guys. Just one of those things where you see a guy — me in that situation — just down in the dumps and kinda upset, getting an arm over your shoulder is always good,” Gonzalez recounted to USA TODAY. “In the moment, I just tried to keep my mouth shut and let the steam blow over . ... I was just so frustrated, I didn’t want to deal with anyone at that time.”
Now a member of the Cardinals, Gonzalez — he received a cascade of supportive texts from his peers in the kicking community — was ultimately grateful.
“I didn’t want to put any extra attention on him,” Lutz told USA TODAY of that moment with Gonzalez. “But every single one of us — unless you’re (Colts kicker) Adam Vinatieri — you’re gonna go through a drought in your career at some point; it’s just the way it is. It’s hard to perform at a high level for so long.
“We all pull for each other. I would never wish anything negative on a kicker whether we’re playing them or not. I always wish that they succeed and we win. It was tough to watch it, but it’s just the nature of the game.”
At a position that might have the smallest margin for error in the NFL, both literally and figuratively, Lutz’s sentiment is actually quite commonplace, especially during a season when kicking fails have seemed rather commonplace and might loom larger than ever heading into Week 17.
USA TODAY spoke with five kickers — Gonzalez, Lutz, the Jets’ Jason Myers, Packers veteran Mason Crosby and Minnesota’s Dan Bailey — about trials and tribulations of the position that have seemed especially prevalent in 2018.
When it rains, it pours
Gonzalez’s misfires in the first two weeks were only a prelude to many other infamous moments this season.
❚ On Oct. 7, Crosby, one of the league’s most reliable snipers during his 12-year career, missed an extra point and a career-high four field goals at Detroit in a 31-23 loss.
“I could’ve never fathomed a game like that happening at any point in my life,” he said.
❚ Two weeks later, the Ravens’ Justin Tucker was wide on a PAT — still the only extra point he’s missed in his distinguished seven-year career — with 24 seconds remaining in a 24-23 loss to the Saints. The dismay on Tucker’s face as the ball sailed mirrored the feeling in the kicking community.
“That was very shocking,” said Gonzalez, who knows Tucker from their time in the AFC North. “Tucker’s arguably the best in the game right now. It just goes to show people are human.”
❚ On Nov. 11, Chicago’s Cody Parkey missed two extra points and two field goals. He somehow managed to hit an upright on all four misses. Somehow the Bears still won. He was lustily cheered by Soldier Field fans the following week, when he drilled a trio of three pointers in a 25-20 victory over Minnesota.
❚ Pittsburgh’s Chris Boswell entered 2018 having converted 85 of 95 career field goal tries (89.5 percent) during his first three seasons. This year? He has missed seven of 20 for a league-low 65 percent (among kickers with at least 10 attempts), including in Oakland Dec. 9 when he slipped on what would have been a tying 40-yarder on the final play of a crushing 24-21 loss for the Steelers.
❚ Then there were the collective efforts. In Week 5, kickers missed 16 of 69 field goals and six of 70 PATs for a total of 22 misfires. In Week 14, 21 wayward kicks occurred (15 of 59 field goals and six of 73 extra points).
“It’s a week-to-week proposition, it’s a kick-to-kick proposition every time we take the field,” Crosby said. “What you’ve done in the past, none of that matters. You need to show up for that one play and execute it at a high level.”
Yet not everyone is forgiving about a bad day — certainly not fans and, oftentimes, not fellow players.
“When everybody on your team comes and tells you it’s not your fault, it’s your fault,” Hall of Famer and NFL Network analyst Deion Sanders said when assessing Tucker’s miss.
“I would love to be a kicker during the week. Because during the week? It is nice,” Steve Smith, formerly a Pro Bowl wideout for the Panthers and Ravens said on Showtime’s “Inside the NFL.”
“They’re playing games on the sideline while we’re practicing. They’re playing cards, they’re in the hot tub, they’re getting massages. I don’t want to be a kicker on Sunday, though.”
Myers knows well the ups and downs of his chosen profession. He was just named to his first Pro Bowl after becoming the first kicker in league history to have five field goals of at least 55 yards in the same season. In a 42-34 defeat of Indianapolis in Week 6, he scored 24 points (seven field goals, three PATs), two shy of the record in a game for a player who didn’t score a touchdown.
Myers, who spent his first three seasons with Jacksonville, almost didn’t have a job after losing a training camp battle to Seahawks veteran Sebastian Janikowski. Myers also has 15 missed extra points since 2015, most in the league over that span after he botched two more in a Week 15 loss to Houston. “A lot of people like to hate on a kicker even when you’re doing good,” Myers said.
Little lenience
The Cowboys fired Bailey right before the season, a move he admitted shocked him. Nobody had made more field goals in franchise history than his 186, and Bailey had converted 88.2 percent of his attempts with Dallas and, at one point, was the second-most accurate kicker in NFL history. He’d even had a string of 275 consecutive PATs.
But Bailey struggled in the second half of 2017 while laboring through a groin injury and, despite what he felt was a strong offseason, lost his job to unproven Brett Maher.
“I’m somewhat a victim of my own success. I’ve set the bar pretty high for myself, so any time I fall short of that, obviously it’s a little more pronounced maybe,” Bailey said. “But, for me, that’s totally fine. I’d rather have those high expectations.”
The Vikings signed Bailey on Sept. 17 after rookie Daniel Carlson — Minnesota had invested a fifth-round pick in the Southeastern Conference’s all-time leading scorer — was waived following a Week 2 tie in Green Bay in which he missed three field goals.
Yep, even when teams take the fairly unusual step of drafting a kicker, they’re only too willing to cut bait.
Crosby, a sixth-rounder, is one of 24 kickers selected since 2007, an average of two per draft. Among that group, just four have reached a Pro Bowl and only six (including Crosby) have played in even 100 games.
Carlson didn’t last long in Minnesota. Yet his flameout wasn’t nearly as notable as that of Robert Aguayo, a second-round pick of Tampa Bay in 2016 who lasted one season despite being a three-time All-American at Florida State and winner of the Lou Groza Award in 2013 as college football’s top kicker.
“There’s a lot of great kickers out there that don’t have jobs,” lamented Myers.
Why do so many college stars struggle in the NFL despite what would seem to be a relatively easy positional transition?
Bailey, who wasn’t drafted in 2011 despite winning the Groza Award in 2010 while at Oklahoma State, says being picked in the draft can place “unrealistic expectations” on a kicker since being selected quickly puts a target on them.
Bailey had an additional theory about why young kickers might struggle: “A big difference between the NFL game and the college game, as far as kicking goes, is just the pressure. You got college teams scoring 40, 50, 60 points a game. At this level, three points in the first quarter are hugely important when it ends up a 13-10 game. You’ve got the whole organization on your shoulders when the game’s on the line.”
Gonzalez, the Groza winner at Arizona State in ’16, concedes the NFL “should be easier because the hash marks are closer.”
However Lutz believes the NFL’s 33yard extra point has added another point of separation.
Noted Crosby: “It’s not an easy job. There’s only 32 of us in the world that do this job in the NFL. You have to be on daily — practice reps are sometimes, honestly, more important than game reps, as far as showing your teammates and coaches you’re ready.
“Sometimes, they have to bounce around a little bit before they find that right spot . ... You get to choose where you go to college, so you feel comfortable with the coach and the environment. But in the NFL, you have to be able to adapt and adjust to a ton of different situations.”
Gonzalez was drafted by Cleveland in 2017 before joining the hometown Cardinals. Carlson hooked on with Oakland. Philadelphia’s Jake Elliott, Kansas City’s Harrison Butker and Washington’s Dustin Hopkins were all drafted in the past five years but had to latch on with a new team before enjoying sustained success.
“As kickers get better and better every year, our percentages are expected to be higher and higher, and there’s less leniency for these guys,” Crosby said.
Redemption
Generally, kickers don’t make excuses. “After something bad happens, you just take the blame for it — that’s kind of the unspoken rule,” Gonzalez said. “Then, at the end of the day, you go watch film — size it up, judge, and then came back the next week and hope to do better.”
At the time of his final miss in Cleveland, few knew Gonzalez was struggling with a groin problem that lingered well after he was released. He is better now and, between field goals and extra points, converted seven of his first eight attempts for Arizona before missing a PAT and field goal in last Sunday’s blowout loss to the Rams.
Crosby and Tucker were front and center, answering every question after their calamities.
“We can’t take credit for winning games if we don’t face questions when it doesn’t go our way,” said Crosby, who, like Gonzalez, was flooded with support after his rough day in Detroit. Even former kickers Ryan Longwell and Hall of Famer Morten Andersen reached out.
“You’re gonna wake up and see another day,” added Crosby, who’s tried hard to earn the respect of teammates he concedes have much more physically demanding roles. “And, make or miss, you gotta face both sides of the sword.”
He hit a 27-yarder at the gun to beat the 49ers in front of a Monday night audience a week after the Detroit loss.
“If you haven’t played the position, you’ve never felt that acute moment that you have one shot, one moment to capitalize on,” Crosby said. “It’s definitely something that connects kickers in a special way.”