Vic Fangio has been around the NFL a long time, and he has seen how placekicking in the league has evolved.
Yet, the Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator believes nothing has affected kickers’ ability quite like changes to the footballs that kickers are using in 2025.
Fangio spoke about the rule changes that enabled kickers and punters to modify the K-Ball and explained why it is a massive advantage for special teamers.
The Eagles surrendered a pair of long field goals — a 65-yarder before halftime and a 58-yard kick in the fourth quarter — to Chase McLaughlin of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Philadelphia’s 31-25 victory Sunday. McLaughlin’s pre-halftime kick was the second-longest made field goal in NFL history.
Vic Fangio: K-Ball Adjustments Have ‘Drastically Changed The Kicking Game’
After years of limiting kickers and punters from preparing the special K-Balls — confining that practice to the equipment staffs of each team for an hour — the NFL relented and allowed kickers and punters to work on footballs ahead of time in hopes of making the balls more easy to kick.
“We get to work on [the balls] a little bit longer than we used to,” Eagles special teams coach Michael Clay said. “We used to only have an hour. Now we get the whole week to fill it in, and the kickers get to pick what ball they feel pretty good about.”
That rule changed hardly made a blip in the NFL off-season — since the headlining special-teams rule change has been the adjustment to kickoffs. Few broadcasters have it up as well — instead pointing out the weapon that long, accurate field-goal kickers like McLaughlin or Brandon Aubrey of the Dallas Cowboys are to their teams.
So the fact Fangio is highlighting the kicking-ball rule adjustment is his way of bringing that to light, especially since he broached the topic without being asked at his Tuesday press availability.
“You know what you guys have missed? Not just you, but everybody?” Fangio asked during a lull in his press conference. “These kicking balls that they changed this year have drastically changed the kicking game, field goals in particular.”
There have been 55 made field goals of 50-plus yards through four weeks of the NFL season — McLaughlin and Aubrey are each 4 for 4 on kicks of at least 50 yards and have knocked at least one 60-plus yard kick as well.
In Fangio’s first year as an NFL coach, 1986, there were just 33 made field goals of 50-plus-yards the entire season. Fangio compared the kicking accuracy to the MLB steroid era of home run hitting.
“It’s almost like they need an asterisk here,” Fangio said. “Like it was the live-ball era or those home runs, [Barry] Bonds, [Mark] McGwire and [Sammy] Sosa were hitting.”
The Eagles Are Benefitting From Kicking Changes Too
Fangio may be pointing this out because his defense has given up long field goals due to this rule change, but that alteration has had a positive impact on Jake Elliott’s accuracy this year.
Elliott was 1 for 7 on field goals of 50-plus yards in 2024 yet is 3 for 3 from that range this year, including a 58-yard made kick in the Eagles‘ 24-20, season-opening win over the Cowboys.
“The ball is traveling,” Clay said. “It’s still warm out. It’s just the trend of the league right now.”
Clay was asked if he feels the rule was good for the game.
“Doesn’t the league want more points?” Clay said. “There it is.”
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