So the wonderful "just score points" video from last year keeps echoing through my head as I watch the endless futility of the Eagle's kicking game. I know that historically Chip Kelly has not had good kickers, but seems to place huge emphasis on special teams. I went to look at all time points scored, expecting to go team by team to show that kickers are damn important , but I found an even better bit of information.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NFL_career_scoring_leaders
This shows that there are all of 2 offensive players in the top 50 all time, and none in the top 25. I know kickers play forever, so I went ahead and pulled points per year out of this, and the lowest kicker was Jason Hanson, at 71.67 per year. The skill players that are above this yearly average are Emmitt Smith and LaDainian Tomlinson. Even Jerry Rice only averaged 66 points per year.
There are still 14 of the top 25 scorers ahead of LDT's ridiculous average points. LDT is by far an outlier, 30 points per year above the other 3 on the list.
A good kicker has the potential to outscore the best position player unless the team has absurd red zone conversion abilities. If the idea is to "Just fuckin score points", then what the hell is going on with ignoring this position.
Rank | Player | Career | Points | Points per year | |
1 | Morten Andersen | 1982-2007 | 25 | 2544 | 101.76 |
2 | Gary Anderson | 1982-2004 | 22 | 2434 | 110.64 |
3 | Jason Hanson | 1992-2012 | 30 | 2150 | 71.67 |
4 | John Carney | 1988-2010 | 22 | 2062 | 93.73 |
5 | Adam Vinatieri (41) | 1996- | 17 | 2006 | 118.00 |
6 | Matt Stover | 1991-2009 | 18 | 2004 | 111.33 |
7 | George Blanda | 1949-1975 | 26 | 2002 | 77.00 |
8 | Jason Elam | 1993-2009 | 16 | 1983 | 123.94 |
9 | John Kasay | 1991-2011 | 20 | 1970 | 98.50 |
10 | Norm Johnson | 1982-1999 | 17 | 1736 | 102.12 |
11 | David Akers (39) | 1998- | 15 | 1721 | 114.73 |
12 | Nick Lowery | 1978-1996 | 18 | 1711 | 95.06 |
13 | Jan Stenerud | 1967-1985 | 18 | 1699 | 94.39 |
14 | Ryan Longwell | 1997-2011 | 14 | 1687 | 120.50 |
15 | Lou Groza | 1946-1967 | 21 | 1608 | 76.57 |
16 | Eddie Murray | 1980-2000 | 20 | 1594 | 79.70 |
17 | Al Del Greco | 1984-2000 | 16 | 1584 | 99.00 |
18 | Olindo Mare | 1997-2012 | 15 | 1555 | 103.67 |
19 | Sebastian Janikowski (35) | 2000- | 13 | 1489 | 114.54 |
20 | Steve Christie | 1990-2004 | 14 | 1476 | 105.43 |
21 | Pat Leahy | 1974-1991 | 17 | 1470 | 86.47 |
22 | Jim Turner | 1964-1979 | 15 | 1439 | 95.93 |
23 | Jay Feely (37) | 2001- | 12 | 1437 | 119.75 |
24 | Matt Bahr | 1979-1995 | 18 | 1422 | 79.00 |
25 | Jeff Wilkins | 1994-2007 | 13 | 1416 | 108.92 |
Rank | Player | Career | Points | Points per year | |
31 | Jerry Rice | 1985-2004 | 19 | 1256 | 66.11 |
47 | Emmitt Smith | 1990-2004 | 14 | 1052 | 75.14 |
55 | LaDainian Tomlinson | 2001-2011 | 10 | 972 | 97.20 |
60 | Randy Moss | 1998-2012 | 14 | 950 | 67.86 |
62 | Terrell Owens | 1996-2010 | 14 | 942 | 67.29 |
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