At what point do we start getting worried about Jason Myers? He’s been awfully shaky in the preseason.
Myers was a monster last year, scoring 171 points, the most ever by a kicker in a season. Including the playoffs, he made it up to 206 – the most ever by a kicker and also the first player at any position to score his area code.
But Myers has been a disaster in the preseason, making only 2 of 5 field goals and also missing a pair of extra points. He’s the only kicker in the last six years who’s missed 5 kicks in the preseason.
The Seahawks don’t seem concerned. “We trust Jason Myers,” says Mike Macdonald. But that surely will change if the struggles roll into the regular season. So that makes it fair to start thinking about whether Myers should be lowered on draft boards.
In general, there seems to be four elite, coveted kickers in drafts this year, including Brandon Aubrey, Ka’imi Fairbairn and Cameron Dicker. With these recent struggles, I wouldn’t be thinking about taking Myers before any of those guys. (Though note that Dicker has also had an iffy preseason, with 2 missed PATs and a missed field goal.)
For whatever reason, kickers as a group have been a little off of late. Seven kickers have missed at least 3 times in the preseason, and all but one of those guys have been kickers who’ve been getting drafted to start for fantasy teams – Myers, Dicker, Jake Bates, Harrison Butker, Andy Borregales and Tyler Loop. (Kansei Matsuzawa is the other kicker with 3 misses).
In comparison, only 12 kickers in the previous five years missed at least 3 kicks.
| MISSING 3 KICKS IN THE PRESEASON (2021-) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | FG-A | Long | XP-A | Pts |
| 2026 | Jason Myers (SEA) | 2-5 | 48 | 2-4 | 8 |
| 2021 | Quinn Nordin (NE) | 6-8 | 50 | 4-7 | 22 |
| 2021 | Joey Slye (CAR) | 5-8 | 41 | 1-2 | 16 |
| 2023 | Cade York (CLV) | 4-8 | 43 | 8-8 | 20 |
| 2026 | Kansei Matsuzawa (LV) | 0-1 | 0 | 1-3 | 1 |
| 2024 | Riley Patterson (WAS) | 2-5 | 46 | 1-1 | 7 |
| 2022 | Ryan Santoso (JAX) | 3-6 | 53 | 1-1 | 10 |
| 2023 | Jake Moody (SF) | 3-5 | 43 | 1-2 | 10 |
| 2021 | Dustin Hopkins (WAS) | 4-7 | 48 | 1-1 | 13 |
| 2024 | Younghoe Koo (ATL) | 4-7 | 54 | 1-1 | 13 |
| 2023 | Matt Prater (ARZ) | 4-6 | 54 | 2-3 | 14 |
| 2024 | Matt Gay (IND) | 1-4 | 35 | 5-5 | 8 |
| 2026 | Jake Bates (DET) | 3-4 | 52 | 3-5 | 12 |
| 2026 | Cameron Dicker (LAC) | 4-5 | 48 | 2-4 | 14 |
| 2023 | Anders Carlson (GB) | 4-4 | 57 | 6-9 | 18 |
| 2026 | Harrison Butker (KC) | 10-12 | 69 | 0-1 | 30 |
| 2026 | Andy Borregales (NE) | 5-8 | 52 | 5-5 | 20 |
| 2022 | Matt Prater (ARZ) | 5-6 | 53 | 7-9 | 22 |
| 2026 | Tyler Loop (BLT) | 5-8 | 51 | 9-9 | 24 |
We’re looking at just three preseason games per team, of course, making it reasonable to believe that guys like Myers, Dicker and Loop will turn things around. More weight should be given to the larger sample size of the 2025 season.
But if we look at those other kickers who have struggled, many went on to also struggle in the real games. Of the 12, half either never played in the real games or ended up playing for multiple teams.
Only three of those kickers ended up scoring more than 115 points, and two of those guys made only 84 percent of their field goals. Dustin Hopkins had the best overall season but did so while playing for two different teams.
Matt Gay and Younghoe Koo stand out on the following chart as guys who were believed to be standout kickers (like Myers) but who never got back to those heights.
| SAME KICKERS IN REGULAR SEASON | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | XP-A | FG-A | 50-A | Pts |
| 2021 | Dustin Hopkins, 2tm | 40-44 | 30-34 | 2-5 | 130 |
| 2024 | Matt Gay, Ind. | 33-33 | 31-37 | 3-9 | 126 |
| 2023 | Jake Moody, S.F. | 60-61 | 21-25 | 2-3 | 123 |
| 2023 | Anders Carlson, G.B. | 34-39 | 27-33 | 3-5 | 115 |
| 2023 | Matt Prater, Ari. | 22-23 | 28-33 | 9-12 | 106 |
| 2024 | Younghoe Koo, Atl. | 26-26 | 25-34 | 6-9 | 101 |
| 2021 | Joey Slye, 3tm | 18-22 | 23-25 | 4-4 | 87 |
| 2022 | Matt Prater, Ari. | 17-18 | 22-25 | 5-6 | 83 |
| 2024 | Riley Patterson, 3tm | 16-16 | 4-7 | 1-3 | 28 |
| 2021 | Quinn Nordin, N.E. | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 |
| 2023 | Cade York (cut) | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 |
| 2022 | Ryan Santoso (cut) | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 |
—Ian Allan
