NFL Needs To Change Field Goal Format

As the NFL looks at the extra point format and decides on whether or not it has become a thing of the past and looks to change it to lower the percentage of making an extra point as well as possibly pushing NFL teams to look to the 2-pt conversion more often, they also need to take a look at the field goal as well.

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Special teams, in all, have gotten boring. Kick-offs are now touchbacks and for the most part they are not even caught, they are kicked through the back of the end zone, but that is a whole other conversation.

In 2013 there were 952 attempted and of those 952 attempted, 826 were made bringing the percentage to a whopping 87% that were made in 2013. This went down in 2014. Out of 987 field goals attempted 829, which figures out to be an 84% made.

Although, if you look a couple of years ago, field goals now are becoming easier and easier to make. Back in 2000, there were 917 attempted field goals and only 731 made bringing a completion percentage to 80%.

In 1990 there were only 793 attempted field goals with only 590 completed bringing the percentage to only a 74% made.

As we get bigger and better players, the facets that have been in place for ever as seemingly getting easier and easier each year.

A change needs to come to how the field goals are presented. Mike Westhoff, special teams guru, has basically stated that it has become boring to coach special teams in this day and age.

"“The job I did doesn’t exist today,” Westhoff told ESPN. “What do you want me to coach, touchbacks? Not interested.”“Kicking has become easier today,” Westhoff said. “The kickers are bigger, stronger and better athletes than before.”– PFT.com"

Westhoff goes on to say with ESPN…

"He’d also like to see the goal posts narrowed by a yard, raising the degree of difficulty. Westhoff, who does some consulting on the side, brought that idea to the FXFL developmental league last year. The league liked it, he said, but it simply didn’t have the money to change the goal posts.Westhoff also has proposed the idea of a kicking hash for field goal attempts, creating “a slightly smaller target from slightly wider angle. That will bring kicking percentages back to where they should be and make it a little more difficult.”– ESPN.com"

With extra points and field goals basically an almost given for points at this point, a change should be made to both of them. It is not an entertaining aspect of the game. We hope for an icing of the kicker with a timeout before hand, but really how often does that actually work. We hope for a blocked kick, but in all reality there have been a total of 45 blocked field goals in a total of almost 2000 attempts, not an aspect that really has brought about change.

This is one aspect of the game I feel should be changed, and I am one that believes you should let them play without all of these new “protect the quarterback rules” and the Tom Brady effect of changing rules. But when the game is becoming too easy, it needs to have upgrades and changes to keep the competitive atmosphere.

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