When the Rams reached the Super Bowl Sunday, Jake Elliott became a Pro Bowler.
Elliott, the Eagles’ 27-year-old kicker, was named to his first Pro Bowl team Monday, a day after the Rams beat the 49ers to advance to Super Bowl LVI.
Elliott was originally selected as first alternate behind Rams kicker Matt Gay, who made 32 of 34 field goals this year.
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Because players who reach the Super Bowl can’t play in the Pro Bowl, Elliott becomes the NFC Pro Bowl kicker.
Elliott didn’t have quite the season that Gay did, but he wasn’t far off.
Gay ranked second in the NFL in accuracy at 94.1 percent, behind only Ravens kicker Justin Tucker.
NFL
Elliott made 30 of 33 kicks for 90.9 percent, which was 7th-best in the NFL and 3rd-best in the NFC, behind Gay and 2020 Pro Bowler Younghoe Koo of the Falcons, who hit 93.1 percent of his kicks.
Elliott broke the Eagles’ single-season record for field goal accuracy set by Alex Henery, who was 24-for-27 for 88.9 percent in 2011.
He’s the first Eagles kicker to make a Pro Bowl team since Cody Parkey in 2014. David Akers made five Pro Bowl teams between 2001 and 2010 (and another with the 49ers).
Elliott bounced back this year from a miserable 2020 season that saw him make just 16 of 22 field goal attempts, which ranked 26th of 30 kickers. Among his six misses were attempts from 22 and 29 yards. That made him the first Eagles kicker to miss two field goal attempts from inside 30 yards in the same season since Matt Bahr in 1993.
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If not for Elliott’s huge cap hit, thanks to the contract extension he signed in November of 2019, he very well could have been released. But that would have cost the Eagles nearly $5.5 million in dead money as opposed to a $3.3 million cap figure if they kept him.
So Elliott returned, and he was 3-for-3 from beyond 50 yards and his only misses were from 41, 46 and 47 yards, and the 47-yarder - against the 49ers - was blocked. He was one of only four NFL kickers this year who was perfect from 50 yards and out (with more than one attempt).
His 58-yarder against the Panthers was the 5th-longest kick in the NFL this year. Along with his 61-yarder against the Giants in 2017, he’s now one of only 18 kickers to make two field goals from at least 58 yards.
Elliott was the Bengals’ 5th-round draft pick in 2017, but the Bengals released him at the end of training camp and the Eagles signed him as a free agent.
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He went on to have an excellent rookie year, capped by a perfect postseason that included two huge kicks - from 42 and 46 yards - in the 4th quarter of the Eagles’ Super Bowl win over the Patriots. He remains the only kicker in history to make two field goals of at least 40 yards in the 4th quarter of a Super Bowl.
Elliott ranks 21st in NFL history with 84.3 percent accuracy.
Elliott joins Jason Kelce, Darius Slay and Javon Hargrave on the Eagles’ Pro Bowl contingent. Kelce and Slay were voted in, and Hargrave made the team as an alternate as well after the Packers’ Kenny Clark was forced to drop out because of an injury.
Elliott is the first player to make a Pro Bowl for the Eagles who was drafted in the 5th round or later by another team since offensive tackle Stan Walters - a Bengals 9th-round pick in 1972 - made his second straight Pro Bowl in 1979.
The Eagles reworked Elliott's contract in May. He's signed through 2024.
The Pro Bowl is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
