Justin Tucker continues to be the best kicker in the NFL. He missed his first kick today, from 40 yards away, which was shocking. And that’s the point of today’s post: Tucker missing a 40-yard field goal is shocking.
His last 7 misses were from 65, 53, 48, 43, 46, 62, and 58 yards away. He had made 56 consecutive field goals from 40 yards and in, until the miss today against Houston. The graph below shows the result of every regular season field goal in Tucker’s career, from his first game in 2012 through week 10 of the 2019 season.
Perhaps the most impressive stat for Tucker is that, prior to today, his average missed field goal came from 50.69 yards away! There are 49 field goal kickers with at least 50 field goal attempts since 2012, and Tucker has the second-longest average make (37.89 yards, behind only the inaccurate Jason Myers) and the longest average miss by a large margin (Mile High-aided Brandon McManus, at 49.03). The graph below shows all 49 kickers; the X-Axis shows the length of the average made field goal, and the Y-Axis the length of the average miss. I have shaded Tucker, who stands out in the upper right anyway, in Ravens colors:
And here’s the raw data, for those curious.
| Kicker | Made | Avg | Rk | Miss | Avg | Rk | FG% | Rk | Total FG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Justin Tucker | 254 | 37.89 | 2 | 26 | 50.69 | 1 | 90.7% | 3 | 280 |
| Stephen Gostkowski | 233 | 35.88 | 31 | 28 | 45.36 | 31 | 89.3% | 4 | 261 |
| Adam Vinatieri | 209 | 37.63 | 4 | 33 | 45.3 | 32 | 86.4% | 13 | 242 |
| Stephen Hauschka | 209 | 36.48 | 19 | 32 | 46.63 | 18 | 86.7% | 10 | 241 |
| Greg Zuerlein | 194 | 37.62 | 5 | 40 | 48.6 | 3 | 82.9% | 33 | 234 |
| Matt Prater | 200 | 37.87 | 3 | 31 | 47.42 | 10 | 86.6% | 11 | 231 |
| Mason Crosby | 189 | 36.4 | 22 | 42 | 46.48 | 19 | 81.8% | 39 | 231 |
| Matt Bryant | 197 | 37.45 | 7 | 29 | 45.52 | 26 | 87.2% | 8 | 226 |
| Dan Bailey | 190 | 37.14 | 14 | 29 | 46.66 | 17 | 86.8% | 9 | 219 |
| Robbie Gould | 184 | 36.2 | 24 | 26 | 44.38 | 38 | 87.6% | 7 | 210 |
| Ryan Succop | 166 | 36.87 | 16 | 33 | 45.52 | 26 | 83.4% | 27 | 199 |
| Phil Dawson | 165 | 36.9 | 15 | 29 | 43.93 | 41 | 85.1% | 22 | 194 |
| Graham Gano | 165 | 36.75 | 17 | 28 | 46.79 | 16 | 85.5% | 19 | 193 |
| Blair Walsh | 154 | 37.18 | 13 | 33 | 46.21 | 22 | 82.4% | 36 | 187 |
| Sebastian Janikowski | 143 | 37.59 | 6 | 31 | 47.97 | 5 | 82.2% | 37 | 174 |
| Nick Folk | 134 | 35.34 | 41 | 28 | 44.29 | 39 | 82.7% | 35 | 162 |
| Mike Nugent | 131 | 36.16 | 25 | 31 | 44.19 | 40 | 80.9% | 41 | 162 |
| Randy Bullock | 133 | 35.93 | 29 | 27 | 45.41 | 30 | 83.1% | 31 | 160 |
| Nick Novak | 136 | 34.58 | 47 | 22 | 47.41 | 11 | 86.1% | 15 | 158 |
| Brandon McManus | 127 | 35.65 | 37 | 30 | 49.03 | 2 | 80.9% | 40 | 157 |
| Dan Carpenter | 131 | 36 | 27 | 22 | 47.64 | 7 | 85.6% | 17 | 153 |
| Caleb Sturgis | 120 | 35.88 | 31 | 30 | 46.27 | 21 | 80% | 43 | 150 |
| Chandler Catanzaro | 119 | 35.99 | 28 | 23 | 44.48 | 37 | 83.8% | 26 | 142 |
| Kai Forbath | 118 | 36.01 | 26 | 20 | 44.7 | 36 | 85.5% | 18 | 138 |
| Chris Boswell | 116 | 36.44 | 21 | 19 | 43.89 | 42 | 85.9% | 16 | 135 |
| Jason Myers | 111 | 38.21 | 1 | 23 | 47.26 | 14 | 82.8% | 34 | 134 |
| Cairo Santos | 108 | 35.72 | 35 | 26 | 45.46 | 28 | 80.6% | 42 | 134 |
| Dustin Hopkins | 110 | 35.43 | 39 | 20 | 48.5 | 4 | 84.6% | 23 | 130 |
| Josh Lambo | 112 | 36.3 | 23 | 15 | 47.4 | 12 | 88.2% | 6 | 127 |
| Wil Lutz | 106 | 36.46 | 20 | 17 | 47.82 | 6 | 86.2% | 14 | 123 |
| Cody Parkey | 102 | 35.79 | 33 | 19 | 43 | 45 | 84.3% | 24 | 121 |
| Connor Barth | 95 | 35.91 | 30 | 21 | 46.48 | 19 | 81.9% | 38 | 116 |
| Josh Brown | 99 | 35.43 | 39 | 9 | 45.44 | 29 | 91.7% | 1 | 108 |
| Harrison Butker | 85 | 35.74 | 34 | 11 | 47 | 15 | 88.5% | 5 | 96 |
| Shaun Suisham | 87 | 34.89 | 45 | 8 | 40.5 | 48 | 91.6% | 2 | 95 |
| Josh Scobee | 74 | 37.43 | 9 | 15 | 47.53 | 8 | 83.1% | 30 | 89 |
| Ka'imi Fairbairn | 70 | 37.27 | 12 | 14 | 47.36 | 13 | 83.3% | 28 | 84 |
| Shayne Graham | 63 | 35.6 | 38 | 12 | 47.5 | 9 | 84% | 25 | 75 |
| Jake Elliott | 64 | 37.38 | 11 | 10 | 43.4 | 44 | 86.5% | 12 | 74 |
| Jay Feely | 58 | 37.41 | 10 | 10 | 40.1 | 49 | 85.3% | 20 | 68 |
| Aldrick Rosas | 58 | 34.4 | 49 | 10 | 43.6 | 43 | 85.3% | 20 | 68 |
| Billy Cundiff | 50 | 35.7 | 36 | 17 | 45.29 | 33 | 74.6% | 48 | 67 |
| David Akers | 48 | 35.23 | 44 | 18 | 42 | 46 | 72.7% | 49 | 66 |
| Alex Henery | 51 | 35.24 | 43 | 13 | 45.69 | 24 | 79.7% | 44 | 64 |
| Zane Gonzalez | 48 | 35.25 | 42 | 13 | 45.54 | 25 | 78.7% | 45 | 61 |
| Rob Bironas | 50 | 34.88 | 46 | 10 | 45.2 | 34 | 83.3% | 28 | 60 |
| Brett Maher | 43 | 37.44 | 8 | 13 | 46.08 | 23 | 76.8% | 47 | 56 |
| Garrett Hartley | 43 | 34.58 | 47 | 12 | 40.58 | 47 | 78.2% | 46 | 55 |
| Rian Lindell | 44 | 36.7 | 18 | 9 | 45.11 | 35 | 83% | 32 | 53 |
Tucker still has a bit to go before, IMO, he can challenge Nick Lowery for the title of best field goal kicker ever. Lowery was even supremely dominant relative to his peers, and for a long time, in a way that’s harder to do in the modern era. But Tucker certainly has a chance to steal that title if he can continue his magnificent play. Oh, and even after his miss today, his average miss comes from over 50.0 yards.