For a game called football, the guys who actually hit the ball with their feet tend to be forgotten. Or at least they are until they screw up. They’re asked to take the field, kick the ball, and not screw it up. For kickers that means missing any field goal inside the 50 and for punters, it’s either shanking or outkicking their coverage.
Who does those things best in the AFC West? That was a tough question because there is no obvious, clear-cut favorite. There isn’t even a lot separating the top kick squad from the bottom. But rank them I must, so rank them I did.
1. Broncos
Primary: K Brandon McManus, P Sam Martin
No kicker in the AFC West made more kicks from outside 50 yards last season than McManus who converted on four of his seven attempts. Overall, he hit 85% of his field-goal attempts, missing just two kicks inside 50 yards.
Martin led the division last season in net punt yard average (41.8), though his gross average of 45.3 yards per punt was 17th in the league and the lowest in the division. His 31 punts inside the 20-yard line ranked sixth in the NFL.
2. Chargers
Primary: K Michael Badgley, P Ty Long
Badgley appeared in eight games last season, attempting just 16 field goals. He made 13 of those (81 percent). The previous season he also attempted 16 field goals but missing just once, and that was outside 50 yards. This year he had one attempt from outside 50 yards and missed it.
Long led the division, averaging 47 yards per punt. He also had a respectable net average of 40.9 yards per punt. Equally impressive, if not more so, is the fact that he had just two touchbacks on 48 punts which easily led the AFC West.
3. Chiefs
Primary: K Harrison Butker, P Tyler Newsome
Butker led the AFC West last season hitting 89 percent of his field goal attempts, including three of six from outside 50 yards. He missed just one from inside 50 yards. He did all this while attempting more field goals (38) than any other kicker in the NFL.
There’s a new punter in Kansas City. The Chiefs move on from Dustin Colquitt after 15 years with the team. His punt average was the worst in the division last season, so they let go of the 37-year-old and are going with undrafted first year punter Tyler Newsome.
The only gauge we can get on Newsome is from his college days at Notre Dame and three preseason games with the Chargers last year. He averaged 44 yards per punt for the Fighting Irish and just 42.4 yards per punt last preseason. Both his college and NFL preseason punt average numbers would be worst in the division and his net average last preseason was a cringe-worthy 34.4 yards per punt.
4. Raiders
Primary: K Daniel Carlson, P AJ Cole
After the 2018 season, the future looked bright for Daniel Carlson. He had made 16 of 17 field goals, including making 15 straight. He was not the same player last season. He averaged a division worst 73 percent and missed his only two attempts from outside 50 yards. He looked a lot more like the kicker who missed three field goals in Minnesota and was cut two games into his rookie season. Who knows which Carlson will show up this year, but it’s clear he can get in his own head a lot, and that’s a very bad quality in a kicker.
Cole was a pretty decent punter last season as an undrafted rookie out of North Carolina State. He was helped by the fact that his competition was Johnny Townsend who was literally the worst punter in the NFL in 2018. But to Cole’s credit, he wasn’t just the lesser of the evils. Cole led the AFC West and was fifth in the NFL with 33 punts stopped inside the 20. Though his net 39.4 yards per punt was worst in the division, likely caused in part by his six touchbacks.
See AFC West ranking for OFFENSE
See AFC West ranking for DEFENSE
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