When the Chargers are profitable — they usually have gained 4 of six video games this season — you’ll be able to most frequently hint the outcomes again to 2 elite elements: the arm of Justin Herbert and the leg of Cameron Dicker.
The soccer world celebrates the previous. Herbert has pinpoint precision, even when draped in defenders. However the latter, Dicker’s record-breaking reliability, has nearly turn out to be an afterthought. He’s going to make his kicks.
Almost 80% of NFL video games have been determined by one possession final season, underscoring the worth of a kicker who can ship three factors time after time. As an illustration, Dicker tied a profession excessive by kicking 5 area targets within the 29-27 win on the Dolphins, together with the 33-yard clincher — and in his 5 seasons he has by no means missed a area objective of 40 yards or fewer.
“Boiled down to the base level, yeah, you kick a ball through the pipes,” stated Dicker, 25, whose group performs host Sunday to the Indianapolis Colts. “But a lot goes into it. You’ve got to have a great holder, a great snapper, and then great field-goal protection. And then you have to be able to do your job at a high level to keep a job here in the NFL nowadays.”
Dicker has made 105 of 111 profession field-goal makes an attempt, giving him one of the best profession share (94.6) in league historical past by a participant with a minimum of 100 makes an attempt.
“This is a guy that, just under the radar, has continued to be absolutely excellent throughout his career,” stated retired NFL kicker Jay Feely, who spent a decade as a CBS analyst. “He continually makes his kicks in the big moments and is becoming one of the best kickers in the NFL.”
A number of the league’s most vital adjustments are occurring within the kicking recreation. Coaches are more and more comfy with lengthy field-goal makes an attempt, making 60 yards really feel like the brand new 50.
The numbers again this up. Area-goal makes an attempt of fifty yards or longer have almost tripled since 2010, when there have been 108 in all the season. By way of six weeks this season, there have been exactly that many, 108, that means the league is on tempo for nearly 300.
Cameron Dicker kicks a area objective within the fourth quarter of the Chargers’ 29-27 win over the Dolphins on Oct. 12.
(Leonardo Fernandez / Getty Photos)
What’s extra, the accuracy of these lengthy kicks has risen dramatically. Kickers made 54.6% of these makes an attempt in 2010 however are at present making them at a 71.3% clip.
That has modified methods. Now, drives that stall round midfield are not automated punting conditions however true scoring alternatives.
The NFL document for the longest area objective stood at 63 yards for 43 years — set first by Tom Dempsey, then tied by a handful of others — earlier than Matt Prater made a 64-yarder in 2013. Longtime Baltimore kicker Justin Tucker has the document at 66 yards, however the booming Brandon Aubrey of the Dallas Cowboys has kicks of 65 and 64 yards. This previous summer season, Jacksonville’s Cam Little made a 70-yarder in a preseason recreation.
“I think there’s an increased confidence in coaches giving players the opportunity to go out there…” stated Dicker, whose longest made kick is 59 yards. “I think guys in the past have had the ability to make long kicks and that some coaches haven’t trusted it at times. But you’re seeing a little bit of a change in that.”
Longtime NFL kicker turned kicking coach Michael Husted factors to a variety of components within the evolution of the place. Gamers are beginning youthful and specializing in kicking, he stated, versus sampling different sports activities. Know-how and analytics have made coaching extra environment friendly and efficient. Non-public teaching, which was once considerably unique, is now commonplace. And persons are taking the psychological facet of the sport much more severely.
“Back then, seeing a sports psychologist was, ‘What’s wrong with you?’” Husted stated. “Now, mental training is part of a three-pronged approach: weight room, on-field and between the ears.”
Feely knew that life from two totally different angles. He performed 14 seasons within the NFL, then watched his son, Jace, who kicked for Arizona State then Colorado.
“Kicking still comes down to your ability to handle failure,” Jay Feely stated. “Every kicker is going to miss, and they’re going to miss critical kicks. Can you handle failure? Can you come back and not allow that to break you?
“A lot of kickers I’ve talked to didn’t retire because they couldn’t do it physically anymore. They were just done with the mental grind.”
As for Dicker, in these high-pressure moments, he leans closely into his religion as a Christian for perspective.
“For me, at the end of the day, I know I’m loved regardless of what happens,” he stated. “So I don’t really care if I make or miss kicks. I’ve got to go out there and do the best I can. And once I kick it, it’s off my hands.”
He finds it useful to maintain gratitude entrance and heart.
“There’s a study I read that gratitude and anxiety come from the same place in your brain, and the two cannot coexist,” he stated. “It’s an either-or situation.”
Regardless of the religion, Dicker delivers religiously.
