Best-ever KICKOFF kickers?

[74_75_78_79_]

Not judging by FG or XP %-age, or how many long FGs made, etc, but simply who was the best at pinning the opposing offense deep in their own territory or maybe kicked-off well enough to prevent big returns?

[JohnTurney]

Not judging by FG or XP %-age, or how many long FGs made, etc, but simply who was the best at pinning the opposing offense deep in their own territory or maybe kicked-off well enough to prevent big returns?

super tough question. There could be some numbers available for people to research but it may not answer your questions.

From 1991-2017 there is data for who had the longest "average" kickoff but you'd have to decide what the value is. And you can go back and find
who kicked the most touchbacks -- to 1970 ... but again ... that's not answering your question.

Anecdotally, Raphael Septien seeped to get good height on his kickoffs ... but not sure who else might have been good at "directional" kickoffs.

You can also get ... and kind of backdoor returns vs a kickoff guy ... see if there are patterns, etc ... I've done a little of that year to
year and picked out top guys from the 60s-80s ... but that still does not answer your question.

I don't know how you can find and answer to that except to talk to recent kickoff guys (mostly kickers, some punters) and ask them who they think
are good at that ... PFF grades every kick -- and you'd think direction and all that is included ... so there is than from 2006 on ... who they grade as the top kickoff guys.

PSI graded kickers but never knew exactly what the criteria used was, presuming that direction and preventing returns are part of the equation.

If someone else knows ...to best thing that would be closest is to find the kickers that allowed the fewest return yards on average and them just assume they were at least partially responsible ... along with the coverage ... like with punters.

Great topic, though.

[74_75_78_79_]

Not judging by FG or XP %-age, or how many long FGs made, etc, but simply who was the best at pinning the opposing offense deep in their own territory or maybe kicked-off well enough to prevent big returns?

super tough question. There could be some numbers available for people to research but it may not answer your questions.

From 1991-2017 there is data for who had the longest "average" kickoff but you'd have to decide what the value is. And you can go back and find
who kicked the most touchbacks -- to 1970 ... but again ... that's not answering your question.

Anecdotally, Raphael Septien seeped to get good height on his kickoffs ... but not sure who else might have been good at "directional" kickoffs.

You can also get ... and kind of backdoor returns vs a kickoff guy ... see if there are patterns, etc ... I've done a little of that year to
year and picked out top guys from the 60s-80s ... but that still does not answer your question.

I don't know how you can find and answer to that except to talk to recent kickoff guys (mostly kickers, some punters) and ask them who they think
are good at that ... PFF grades every kick -- and you'd think direction and all that is included ... so there is than from 2006 on ... who they grade as the top kickoff guys.

PSI graded kickers but never knew exactly what the criteria used was, presuming that direction and preventing returns are part of the equation.

If someone else knows ...to best thing that would be closest is to find the kickers that allowed the fewest return yards on average and them just assume they were at least partially responsible ... along with the coverage ... like with punters.

Great topic, though.

Thanks for the response! And the, "great topic". May be a tough question to answer, though. And, shortly after posting, I wondered if it was an easy answer after all. I wouldn't want someone to actually roll up their sleeves and labor over it unless they really, truly, wanted to.

Punters are usually better at strategically trying to pin a kick within the 20 or, better yet, the 10 or less. Kickoffs are tougher. Mostly go into, or beyond, the end zone (touchback).

And even if a kicker's kickoffs resulted in lesser return yardage...maybe, more-likely, it had to do with the ten gunners running down-field with him.


And now starting this coming year...(2024)...the Kickoff will change forever! Maybe not a bad thing, or lesser thing. We'll see.

[JohnTurney]

And even if a kicker's kickoffs resulted in lesser return yardage...maybe, more-likely, it had to do with the ten gunners running down-field with him.

Yeah --- coverage would be lion's share. Kickoffs are directional ... especially when there is a great returner they want to pin him in .. but seems like that fail as much as succeed.

But that's now.

Back in the 1970s? 60s? Did they have as much control as kickers now? I'd doubt it.

[Brian wolf]

Stenerud for 60s-70s? ... Morten Anderson was a boomer during 80s-90s.

[JohnTurney]

Stenerud for 60s-70s? ... Morten Anderson was a boomer during 80s-90s.

Bobby Howfield
Horst Muhlmann
Roy Gerela
John Leypoldt


Anderson, as you rightly point out

others in 1980s
Lee Johnson

1990s
Brad Daluiso

late-1990s-2000s
Joe Nedney
Rackers
Mitch Berger
Orlindo Mare



and there could be some more --- didn't do career compilations, just year by year...

these are the guys who were consistently kicking most TBs --- does not mean the best, per sey but indicator of strong leg ... could be someone with strong legs that "took a little off" to pin people in, therefore less touchbacks ...and perhaps for strategic/

[Brian wolf]

Gerela? No disrespect to his Gorillas but I just remember the postseason flubs ...

[Bryan]

Gerela? No disrespect to his Gorillas but I just remember the postseason flubs ...

But those were his most effective kickoffs!

Looking at some PFR data from 1991-, its impressive that Morton Andersen has such a high TB% relative to everyone else. He had already been in the league 10 years and he was still at the top (granted he kicked in domes). Compare that to Nick Lowery, who was at the end of his career but only 4 years older than Morton, and Lowery was near the bottom of TB% numbers. But for the most part the TB% is kind of strange.

I looked at Sebastian Janikowski, and his career has three distinct plateaus. The first third of his career its 15%, the middle third its 30%, and the last third its 50%. I'm assuming rule-changes had some effect on the numbers, but even so its hard to glean much from this. I also looked up an old Steeler kicker from the 90's, Norm Johnson, who was very accurate but very old. He had seasons where he would literally have 1 touchback in 64 kickoffs. But that year the Steelers were 3rd in the NFL with only 18.9 YPR allowed and didn't give up a TD all year. So not sure what to conclude.

[Sonny9]

I think with Howfield it was about kicking in Denver. Here are his KOs and returns. I left off 1974 because the KO line was moved back to the 35. I went with FGs+TD+the 1 KO per game resulting in 1st or 2nd half opening KOs to determine the number of KOs. i had no idea how many were onsiders but figured it wasn't many and it would even out.

Code: Select all

	KOs	Ret	% Ret
Den	57	29	50.9%
	64	21	32.8%
	60	24	40.0%
totals	181	74	40.9%
			
NYJ	49	34	69.4%
	73	47	64.4%
	58	44	75.9%
totals	180	125	69.4%

[GameBeforeTheMoney]

Like mentioned before - this is an awesome question!

I don't have the data to back this up but I seem to remember Steve Christie being very good at getting touchbacks nearly every time. And that's going to limit long KO returns.

Hard to really define this because special teams defense comes into play here. I'd be curious to see how the Rams and Eagles KO return yardage changed after the ST hires of Dick Vermeil and Marv Levy around 69 or 70.