Dave Zangaro and Reuben Frank break down the player who lands at No. 20 on their list of the most important Eagles for this upcoming season.
Over the next few weeks leading up to training camp, we’ll be counting down the top 25 most important Eagles for the 2022 season.
25. Quez Watkins
24. Gardner Minshew
23. T.J. Edwards
22. Marcus Epps
21. Landon Dickerson
20. Jake Elliott
After a disappointing 2020 season that had Eagles fans wondering about Jake Elliott’s future, the kicker bounced back in a major way last season.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Philadelphia sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
Elliott, 27, made his first-career Pro Bowl and had the best season of his five years in the NFL.
Not only didn’t Elliott made 30 of 33 field goal attempts, but he also drilled all three attempts from 50+.
Just look at his improvement from 2020 to 2021:
2020: 14 of 19 (73.7%), 2-for-5 from 50+, 24-for-26 on PATs
NFL
2021: 30 of 33 (90.9%), 3-for-3 from 50+, 44-for-44 on PATs
“Yeah, obviously, wasn't here last year,” Eagles special teams coordinator Michael Clay said in November. “But just knowing Jake around the league and hearing his name, you always know this guy's a very good kicker.
“And it's just kudos to him refocusing on what got him here and that's just his fundamentals, working with Arryn [Siposs] and Rick [Lovato] in the offseason, getting that down. Obviously, it's a new holder, so there’s going to be something new.
“But they've been fantastic and kudos to all three of those guys, just working hand and hand and they have been operating like a well-oiled machine. The one thing you can definitely tell between those three is, one, they like each other, which helps. And they have fun during practice.”
Not only was 2021 the best season of Elliott’s career but his field goal percentage of 90.9% is the highest in franchise history, surpassing Cody Parkey (2014) and Alex Henery (2011), who both made 88.9% of their kicks in their respective best seasons.
The bounce-back season for Elliott was a big relief because the Eagles were stuck with him either way after handing Elliott a five-year extension back in 2019. But now they have a Pro Bowl kicker under contract for the next three seasons.
According to OverTheCap, Elliott’s AVY of $4.03 million ranks 12th in the NFL among kickers. So that’s actually a bargain for one of the better kickers in the NFL … as long as Elliott can duplicate that success in 2022.
For a team like the Eagles, with serious playoff aspirations, a kicker is huge. There are likely going to be games this season that come down to the wire and having a kicker you can trust really eliminates a lot of those nerves.
Subscribe to the Eagle Eye podcast
Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | Stitcher | Art19 | Watch on YouTube
