LA Rams secure the 2024 kicker role with this familiar player. Or did they?

Kickers around the NFL had varying levels of success

Perhaps it's that bittersweet experience of parting with kickers too soon that compelled the LA Rams to give rookie kicker Tanner Brown a second look for the 2024 NFL season. After all, they had remarkable success with kicker Matt Gay in 2020 through 2022, who was himself released after his rookie season by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

In the context of NFL kicker track records, perhaps the LA Rams know what they are doing.

Let's pause and consider the Rams options at the end of the 2022 NFL season. The Rams had a chance to match the offer by the Indianapolis Colts in the 2023 NFL offseason. Some Rams fans still believe that the Rams front office should have. But did the Colts truly get the NFL's best kicker? After all, they paid the highest kicker salary to date, so did it work out for them?

In my opinion, no. In 2023, Matt Gay was successful on just 80.5 percent of his field goal attempts. On attempts of 40 yards or greater distance, Gay was only good 68.2 percent of the time. I don't regret the Rams decision not to make Matt Gay the highest paid kicker in the NFL.

Even the San Francisco 49ers, a team whose roster was so well-rounded out that they drafted rookie kicker Jake Moody with the 99th overall pick of the 2023 NFL Draft, have every reason to experience buyer's remorse this past season. In terms of kicker accuracy, Moody was successful on just 84.0 percent of his field goal attempts, which was no better than 21st place in the NFL kicker rankings.

But what about his long-distance accuracy? At a range of 40 or more yards, Moody made just six of nine kicks, which works out to just 66.7 percent of his kicks made. But the real statistic is the fact that in 17 games, Moody was asked to attempt a field goal of 40+ yards just nine times. Clearly the 49ers do not trust him to make those long kicks either.