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Kickers have arguably one of the most important roles in football, as they’re constantly scoring the extra point after every touchdown as well as that important 3-point field goal. Scoring 40 to 55-yard field goals consistently is what produces some of the greatest football kickers we’ve seen to this day.
In the NFL, there are a handful of great kickers who get the job done for the team, but only very few are considered the best. Your kicker at many times can be as prized as your quarterback, which is why in this article, we outline the 5 greatest kickers in NFL history, including how many games they played, which teams they played for as well as how many field goals and extra points they made.
Beginning our list of the 5 greatest kickers in NFL history is the 1992-2012 Detroit Lions veteran kicker known as Jason Hanson. Hason played 279 as a placekicker for Detroit, making 495 out of his 601 attempted field goals. Overall, he’d compile an 82.4 FG%, sealing 2,150 for the Lions which is an incredibly high ratio. Stats like these easily put Hanson on the list of the 5 greatest kickers in NFL history, as consistency is key when it comes to place kicking.
Originally a center and right tackle in 1947 before transitioning to left tackle for 12 straight seasons for the Cleveland Browns, Lou Groza finally settled on the role of kicker for the last 98 games of his career. Whoever coerced Lou into making this decision deserves a medal, as throughout his time as the Browns kicker, he’d score 264 field goals out of 481 attempts, giving him a 54.9% FG ratio. While this may not seem very high for a normal kicker, Graza would still capture 1,349 points for his team while maintaining a 92.7% extra point conversion rate, which for a player who wasn’t originally a kicker is impressive, to say the least.
Adam Vinatieri is one of the few NFL kickers that can make scoring field goals and extra points seem like an art form. During his career, Vinatieri would have 173 caps, split between the New England Patriots from 1996-2005 and the Indianapolis Colts from 2006-2019. Out of all competitors on this list of the 5 greatest kickers in NFL history, Adam Vinatieri has the most field goals made at 599 out of 715 attempts. This gives him an 83.8% field-goal conversion ratio, which barely beats out Hanson over a smaller span of games. In total, he’d earn 2,671 points just from place-kicking in sub-200 games, making him one of the 5 greatest kickers in NFL history without much argument against.
Considered the second-best of the 5 greatest kickers in NFL history is none other than the most experienced football player of all time, Morten Andersen. Andersen achieved 382 games for the NFL, currently the most out of any other player, to where he’d make an impact as a placekicker for 5 separate teams including the Saints, Falcons, Giants, Chiefs, and Vikings (finishing back at the Falcons in 2007). We’ve listed him above as a Saints player, since that’s where he earned a place in the Ring of Honor. His place-kicking stats show just how great he was, with 565 out of 709 field goals made consistently, leading to a 79.7% field goal conversion rate. All in all, he’d score 2,544 points, but the fact that he did it on five different teams for over two decades makes it even more appalling, which is why Andersen is considered one of the 5 greatest kickers in NFL history, and rightly so.
A player who hasn’t retired yet, Justin Tucker, may just as well be considered the greatest kicker in NFL history, without even having an end to his career in sight! If you’re wondering what makes Tucker number one on this list, just look at his stats. Throughout just 81 games played so far for the Baltimore Ravens (starting in 2012), Tucker has made 395 field goals out of 438 attempts, giving him the largest field goal conversion rate of 90.2%. If we observe his 1,649 points (and climbing) over just 81 games, the math puts Justin Tucker at earning around 8.5 points per game, which is equivalent to scoring over one touchdown per game! That’s why Justin Tucker takes the top spot on the list of 5 greatest kickers in NFL history.
Liam has been a major sports fan and soccer player for over a decade, with a particular focus on major top-level soccer leagues, including the EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and MLS. He has written numerous promotional articles for various top sportsbooks and continues to publish historical and factual sports articles covering the NFL, MLS, NHL, MLB, EPL and more.