In the first 70 years of its existence, the NFL witnessed only two successful field goals from beyond 60 yards. However, Brandon Aubrey, the Dallas Cowboys kicker, has already achieved this feat twice this season alone. Aubrey, a former professional soccer player drafted by MLS’s Toronto FC, matched a franchise record when he converted from 65 yards against the Baltimore Ravens last month. His kick, which sailed through the uprights with ample room to spare, was just one yard short of the all-time NFL record set by Justin Tucker in 2021. Aubrey also successfully kicked from 51 yards later in the same game. And Aubrey isn’t the only standout kicker in the early weeks of the new season. In Week 4, the New England Patriots’ Joey Slye hit a 63-yard field goal. During the first two weeks of the season, 39 field goals were attempted from 50-plus yards, with only four missing. This 89.7% success rate was the highest through the first two weeks of a campaign since 2008, when only 11 field goals of 50-plus yards were attempted. As of Week 5, excluding the Monday night game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the New Orleans Saints, the overall league-wide field goal success rate of 86.3% is the second-highest average in NFL history.

So, what is driving this recent surge? John Carney, a Super Bowl-champion kicker with the New Orleans Saints and now a coach, believes technological advancements have played a crucial role. “We have this little guy,” he says, holding up his iPhone. “That’s very beneficial. Anyone can go out on the field, set this up, and get some really good video to troubleshoot. Maybe their contact is off. Maybe their swing path is off. They can troubleshoot very quickly.” In the past, very rarely did anyone have the means to record him, and if they did, it was with a camcorder, VHS. Then you had to go back and plug that into a TV. The quality wasn’t very good. You might be missing the frame of the foot hitting the ball that you needed to fine-tune your contact.”

There is also the element of trust. As kickers have demonstrated their ability to convert at high percentages over increasing distances, coaches are more willing to lean into long-range field goals as a means of getting points on the board. “There were a handful of kickers 10 years ago who could kick the ball the same distance,” says Stephen Hauschka, who won Super Bowl XLVIII with the Seattle Seahawks and set an NFL record for the most consecutive field goals made from 50-plus yards. “But we’re seeing two things now: coaches are willing to go for these kicks, and then the kickers are proving themselves.”

Improvements in practice, athleticism, and technology show up in place kicking. With year-on-year rule changes, upgraded equipment, and a keener focus on player welfare, the NFL of today is barely recognisable from the grainy footage of early gridiron; comparing, say, the wide receivers or quarterbacks of 2024 with their counterparts from 50 years ago is a pointless exercise, so vastly has football changed. But the task of a kicker in today’s NFL, in approach and optics, is barely distinguishable from kicking in decades past – at least since the goalposts were moved from the goalline to the endline in 1974. And amid the jargon-filled world of modern analytics, field goal distances and success rates are as easily digestible as any sporting metric you can find.

“Just like we saw all these world records broken this year at the summer Olympics, it’s going to happen again because of the advancements in coaching, training methods, technology, and sports science,” Carney says. “It helps athletes improve at a light-speed level.” But Hauschka preaches caution to those getting giddy over the early season statistics. Experience taught him that as the year wears on, the kicker’s job gets harder. He expects, at least to some degree, a regression by the time winter rolls around. “It’s early in the season,” Hauschka adds. “The weather is good. Guys’ legs are fresh, their minds are fresh. It’s towards the end of the season when things get more difficult.”

Still, there is little doubt that kicking in the NFL has progressed over the past decade or so to a level that would have been unimaginable in decades past. So how much further – literally and figuratively – can NFL kickers go? “The Cowboys kick in a dome, so that’s something they can do all year round,” Hauschka says. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we see the record [for longest field goal] broken this year.” Carney, who worked with Aubrey early in his transition from soccer to place kicking, also expects records to fall in the near future. “He’s an amazing talent,” he says of the Dallas kicker. “What he is doing is incredible. He may end up as the greatest kicker in NFL history the way he’s going. There are some great legs out there. I’m excited to see who steps up and shatters that … record. It’s exciting for the fans and it’s great for the game. “You want to see Babe Ruth hit that record-breaking home run. We may see a 70-yarder this year.”