Sports

There was a time when a 50-yard field goal was a rare accomplishment in the NFL. That time has passed.

Now, 50-yard field goals are so commonplace that NFL kickers are 77-for-108 on field goals of 50 yards or longer this season. They've made 71.3 percent of all field goal attempts from 50 yards and beyond.

A 50 yard or longer field goal happens about twice as frequently per game as it did 10 years ago; this year there's been about 0.4 field goals of 50 yards or longer per team per game, and in 2015 it was about 0.2. Twenty years ago, 50-yard field goals were so rare that there were only 48 of them all season, or less than 0.1 per team per game.

But just looking at field goals of 50 yards or longer doesn't even tell the whole story, because coaches are letting their kickers attempt field goals from much farther out than they used to. A 60-yard field goal attempt used to be almost unthinkable, but this year NFL kickers are 4-for-8 from beyond 60 yards through six weeks. As recently as 2014, there wasn't a single 60-yard field goal in the NFL for the entire season.

For much of NFL history, one of the league's most famous records was Tom Dempsey's record for longest field goal, which was 63 yards. Already this year Chase McLaughlin has made a 65-yard field goal and Brandon Aubrey has made a 64-yard field goal.

In the NFL's first 86 seasons, there were a grand total of four 60-yard field goals. There have been four already this season.

The NFL has never seen long-distance field goals like it's seeing this year.

If he'd still been the starter in Cleveland, it would have been a story last week. Now that Joe Flacco has been traded to the Bengals (and immediately installed as the starting quarterback), it's a nugget worth highlighting in advance of Thursday night's game.

Flacco vs. Aaron Rodgers. A pair of quarterbacks on the wrong side of 40. That has happened only three times before.

All three occasions occurred in the same season: 2020. It was Tom Brady's first year in Tampa and Drew Brees's last year in the NFL. The Bucs and Saints squared off three times that year, with Brady at 43 and Brees at 41.

It'll likely happen again in four weeks, when the Bengals and Flacco visit the Steelers and Rodgers. Then, who knows when it will happen next?

Brady's ability to play until 45 has caused many to believe quarterbacks can fend off Father Time into their 40s. It also has prompted players like Russell Wilson and Dak Prescott to openly declare an intention to do the same.

But while the spirit may be willing, the flesh will only cooperate for so long. Wilson, who turns 37 next month, seems to be out of chances to start. His only opportunity to play past 40 will likely come from sticking around as a backup and getting onto the field via injury.

Current candidates to make it to and beyond 40 are Matthew Stafford (37) and Geno Smith (34). Last year, Smith told PFT that he hopes to have a 20-year career, which would take him past his 40th birthday, too.

Other starters in their 30s are Prescott (32), Jared Goff (who turned 31 two days ago), Baker Mayfield (30), and Patrick Mahomes (30). (Carson Wentz, the temporary starter in Minnesota, is 32. Kirk Cousins, the backup in Atlanta, is 37.)

All other starting quarterbacks are in their 20s. It could be more than a few years before another 40-vs.-40 matchup happens.

Especially since plenty of the quarterbacks who aspire to keep starting beyond their 40th birthdays may find out before then that their skills have eroded to the point where none of the 32 NFL franchises will be willing to put them under center.