Nick Sirianni said his faith in kicker Jake Elliott hasn’t wavered despite Elliott's ongoing struggles in his eighth NFL season.
Elliott — one of the most accurate long-range kickers in NFL history before this year — is 0-for-5 from 50 yards and out this year, including a 52-yard miss Sunday against the Panthers. With three minutes left and the Eagles up six points, Sirianni passed up a 54-yard field goal attempt that would have given the Eagles a two-possession lead to punt the Panthers deep.
Sirianni’s decision ultimately worked out, but it did seem to indicate a lack of faith in Elliott.
Elliott was 11-for-17 from 54 yards and out before this year — that’s 65 percent and was 6th-best in NFL history coming into 2024. But he’s 0-for-3 this year from at least 54 yards.
Sirianni expressed his confidence in Elliott in his press conference on Monday and expounded on it Tuesday during an interview with the WIP Morning Show.
“I have so much confidence in Jake,” Sirianni said Tuesday. “I’ve got a ton of confidence in him. I know that he's been a special player. You know, as you look at it this year, he's done some really good things this year and has had some unfortunate misses, had one blocked as well, which isn't on him. And so confidence is built through the success of games and what happens in practice and I still have a ton of faith and confidence in Jake.”
Overall, Elliott is 18-for-24 this year and ranks 30th of 36 kickers who’ve attempted at least 10 field goals at 75 percent.
Elliott is 18-for-19 inside 50 yards with the miss coming from 44 yards in the Washington game.
But 50-to-59-yarders are high-percentage kicks these days in the NFL. Other than Elliott, the rest of the NFL is 74 percent in that 50-to-59 range. Elliott is 0-for-4.
Elliott is one of only eight kickers in NFL history with multiple 60-yarders – the game-winning 61-yarder against the Giants in 2017 in his second NFL game and a 61-yarder against the Vikings last year.
His longest field goals this year are 49-yarders against the Browns and Bengals. The Eagles are the only NFL team without a 50-yard field goal this year.
Last time the Eagles went a full season without a 50-yard field goal was 2012, when Alex Henery only attempted one and missed from 58 yards in Tampa.
The last NFL kickers to go 0-for-5 or worse in a season from 50 yards and out are Jason Hanson and Morten Anderson in 1994.
“You get to see (Elliott) three hours each week, right?” Sirianni said. “I get to see it in practice over and over and over and over again. Again, why do we run certain players, certain defenses in the game? Because you want to think that's what's going to work. That's part of the game plan, but you build confidence in it as practice goes. And then it's the same thing in the kicking game.”
Coming into this season, including postseason, Elliott had made 87.2 percent of his career field goals – 8th-highest in NFL history with a minimum of 100 attempts. He’s now down to 14th at 86.0 percent.
Elliott is 16-for-16 in the postseason, including 4th-quarter kicks of 42 and 46 in the Super Bowl win over the Patriots in 2017.
Sirianni said he won’t hesitate to send Elliott out there for a high-leverage attempt regardless of the distance.
“In moments where it's time to kick, I will have the most confidence (in him),” he said. “That doesn't mean we don't go for it when I feel like we should go for it or punt it when I feel like we should punt it. But it does start … with the confidence that you have in your kicker and I have a ton, a ton, a ton of confidence in Jake Elliott.”
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