The 5 best kickers in the history of the L.A. Rams

It isn't a glamorous position by any means, but the kicker means a great deal to NFL teams. The Rams are one of those teams whose fan base surely have stories to tell about just how impactful the position can be.

Just ask any Rams fan who witnessed Adam Vinatieri's game-winning kick for the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVI over Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk and company. The fan base remembers that kick, in that moment, all too well.

Kickers are important, and deserve to be honored as a key position within the game just as much as any other player. For the Rams, this is a team that's been fortunate enough to have some great kickers throughout their history. But, which of them should be considered the best of the best?

Before we take a look back at our top five, we tried to figure out just how we'd put this list together.

Criteria for selection

Over any other aspect of the kicking game, what is, by far, the most important part of their job? It should be pretty simple, right? They have to make the kick, plain and simple. They aren't doing the most important aspect of their job if the ball doesn't go through the uprights.

So, above all else, our top five Rams kickers will be judged based on their ability to get the ball through the uprights more often than not -- kicking percentage. From there, longevity matters a great deal. How many field goals did these guys make for the Rams? How long were they able to stick around and perform at a high level? That also must be taken into consideration.

But, make no mistake. If a kicker stuck around a while, and made their fair share of field goals, that's not an automatic qualifier. The Rams had a couple of guys who landed within the top five of made field goals on the all-time franchise list, yet they do not appear here. Why not?

Both Bruce Gossett (120) and David Ray (110) are in the top five of made field goals in Rams history, yet their kicking percentages were nothing spectacular: 58.0 and 61.8 percent, respectively. Likewise, Frank Corral is no. 7 on the all-time made field goals list for the Rams, yet he didn't come close to making the cut either, because of his kicking percentage of 70.5.

That leads us to the player to kick us off, here, no pun intended.

The top 5 kickers in Rams history

5. Matt Gay

Back in the 2019 NFL Draft, we saw something happen which very rarely takes place. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers took Matt Gay, a kicker, in the fifth round. After spending just one year with the Bucs, the team let him go and he ultimately ended up with the Rams.

Gay sits no. 8 on the Rams' all-time made field goals list, having made 74 field goals in all during his time with the team. But, his kicking percentage is what ultimately landed him inside our top five. Gay made a ridiculous 92.5 percent of his field goals when with the Rams, which ranks first all-time among qualifying kickers (Rams kickers who attempted at least two field goals in their career).

The Rams chose not to bring Gay back after his third season with the team in 2022, after he had made 93.3 percent of his kicks that year. He would go on to play for the Indianapolis Colts in 2023 and came back down to earth, a bit, finishing with a kicking percentage of just 80.5.

4. Josh Brown

Like Gay, Josh Brown was yet another kicker who was taken on draft weekend, back in the 2003 NFL Draft. The Seattle Seahawks took him in the seventh round, where he played five seasons before spending the following four years with the Rams between 2008-2011.

The former Nebraska kicker would end up going on to lead the league in made field goals during the 2010 season, when he knocked 33 of them through the uprights. Brown actually found himself leading the league a couple of times, throughout his career, in different metrics. In 2003, he made the NFL's longest field goal that season as a rookie, with a 58-yarder that would wind up being his career-long.

Then, in 2005, he made the most extra points across the NFL with 56. His only Pro Bowl came in 2015 with the New York Giants, the season which he ranked first in field goal percentage across the league at 93.8.

Brown now sits no. 6 all-time on the Rams' made field goal list with 106 makes during his time with the team.

3. Mike Lansford

Once again, we come to a kicker who was once drafted -- something you rarely see in today's game. Now, Mike Lansford was drafted in the 12th round of the 1980 NFL Draft, back when there were way more than just seven rounds. He was selected by the Giants, but would never actually make the team. He then spent time with both the Oakland Raiders and San Francisco 49ers, but also did not make the active roster.

Then, in 1982, he began his Rams career. He would go on to play nine seasons for the team. Had he been playing in today's NFL, though, there is no way he would have lasted that long. Only once did Lansford end a season with a kicking percentage higher than 80. Additionally, he ended three separate seasons under 70 percent.

Yet, his longevity is what kept him in our top five. Lansford's career 158 makes keep him no. 3 on the team's all-time list of made field goals, so it's hard not to mention him within this group. His career field goal percentage of 72.8 is by far, and a way, the worst of this group, however.

2. Greg Zuerlein

The man who will forever be remembered as Greg "The Leg" Zuerlein checks in at no. 2 on our all-time list, and that's also where he sits on the team's all-time make list with 201 between 2012-2019. The Rams selected Zuerlein in the sixth round of the 2012 NFL Draft after he played his college ball at Missouri Western State, and although he endured a few different tough stretches, Zuerlein certainly caught the league's attention from Day 1.

As a rookie, Zuerlein would knock through a 58-yard field goal in Week 4 against the Seahawks, which would break the franchise record. But, he wasn't done there. Later on, in the same game, Zuerlein broke his own record with a 60-yarder.

The 2015 campaign was a tough one for Zuerlein, as he missed a pair of games due to injury and also ended the year converting just 66.7 percent of his kicks. Yet, he did end up setting a career mark with a 61-yard field goal make.

To this day, Zuerlein's 201 field goal makes still sit, at minimum, 43 makes ahead of the next-closest on the team list.

1. Jeff Wilkins

Finally, we come to a guy who is not only our no. 1 kicker in franchise history, but statistically, he is the no. 1 kicker in Rams history after having made 265 field goals in his 11 years with the team. It's Jeff Wilkins, who would go undrafted out of Youngstown State back in the 1994 NFL Draft. Wilkins bounced around a bit to start his career, spending time with the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers before finally joining the Rams in 1997.

The rest is history. Wilkins would go on to accomplish a great deal as a Ram, but no season was more special than the 1999 campaign, when Wilkins not only won Super Bowl XXXIV with the team, but led the NFL with 64 extra points made that year -- out of 64 attempts, to boot. The next season, Wilkins made 100 percent of his field goal attempts, going 17 of 17. Then, in 2001, he once again led the league in extra points made with 58 -- on 58 attempts.

Later on in his Rams career, he would lead the league in field goal makes on two separate occasions, making 39 in 2003 and 32 in 2006. Somehow, he only made one Pro Bowl during his entire career. Yet, beyond a somewhat-meaningless vote, Wilkins accomplished a whole lot more than what the Pro Bowl could do for his legacy.