Last season was not a good season for longtime Philadelphia Eagles kicker Jake Elliott.
In 2025, Elliott converted on only 74% of his field goals (20-27), and in 2024, he made only 78% of his field goals, including 1-7 from 50 yards or more.
In the offseason, the Eagles reworked Elliott’s contract, which reportedly guarantees the 31-year-old $5 million in 2026.
On Thursday, Eagles special teams coordinator Michael Clay was asked about the nine-year veteran, and he said Elliott has to get back to the basics.
“With Jake, obviously, a long career, still confident in him,” Clay said. “You could go game by game, situation by situation, but nobody really wants to hear any of that. Everybody wants to know, what have you done for me last? But for Jake, 10 years in the NFL, 10 years to do it in Philadelphia, big kicks, hard to go against a confidence in that. For me personally, it’s hard for myself to– Is everybody going to jump on the bandwagon to beat a dead horse? No. Jake’s going to be his hardest critic of all time. It’s for me as a coach to bring him up and keep the confidence in him because when he’s confident, a confident kicker is a dangerous kicker. So, for him, it’s just getting back to his basics, getting back to his routine, and falling in love with the game again.
“For a lot of these players, whatever bad things happen, they fall into that pit hole of like, ‘Am I good enough?’ Obviously, you’re good enough to play in the NFL. There’s only 32 kickers in the NFL or vice versa. There’s only 64 starting DNs. So for him to fall in love with the game again and keep that energy and keep that confidence up, I think, is going to be huge for Jake. That’s where I come in, being his caddy and keeping him up in all those situations.”
Kickers can be weird. One year, they make everything, and then the following year, they can’t make anything. Elliott, who has made a lot of big kicks in his career, is not young anymore, and he has not been his best over the past two seasons. Maybe he needs to fall back in love with the game, or maybe he might not be the same player. Time will tell. However, Philadelphia should bring in another kicker to compete with Elliott.
