Eagles top 10 acquisitions of 2017: #8 — Jake Elliott

Virtually everything the Eagles touched in 2017 turned to gold silver. With free agency around the corner and the draft to follow, we look back at the top 10 moves the Eagles made on their path to the Super Bowl.

Being the new guy isn’t always easy. Jake Elliott found that out in his just his second game with the Eagles. Having missed a 30 yard field goal at the end of the first half in his first game against the Chiefs, he was then skating on thin ice when he missed a 52 yard attempt in the 3rd quarter against the Giants the next week. Kickers in 2017 made just 69% of kicks from 50+ yards, so it was far from a guarantee that he would have made it. But Jason Peters didn’t care.

That’s when Jake Elliott’s education advanced to another level: make a big play against a rival and you’ll be the hero. You know what happened next. Peters told Elliott not to miss, and he nailed a 61 yard field goal to win the game and secure a place in Eagles lore.

He then had one of the weirdest seasons by a kicker. Elliot made 87.8 of his kicks from between 30-39 yards, both field goals and extra points. He made 91.6% of his kicks from everywhere else, converting 17 of 19 from 40+. It was written in the stars that in the Super Bowl he would miss an extra point but nail a 46 yarder to put the penultimate nail in the Patriots coffin.

The quirkiness of Elliott is endearing. Of course a kicker who makes all the easy attempts would be better, but there’s something about a guy who makes the easy look hard and the hard look easy.