Philadelphia Eagles fans had the same concern going into the playoffs last year as they do this season with kicker Jake Elliott.
It has not been an easy season for Elliott, who has had one of his worst seasons and enters the postseason as one of the least accurate kickers among playoff teams. Eagles special teams coordinator Michael Clay spoke about having confidence in Elliott and the turnaround he has had over the last two weeks, making him comfortable that Elliott can make any kick.
“Yeah, I don't know if correcting his issues is the right term," Clay said via njdotcom's Cayden Steele. "You saw [on] Sunday night, you saw [on] Sunday afternoon against us. It's hard to kick in the NFL, especially here in the northeast. I mean, you could see [Washington Commanders K] Jake Moody, doinked one off from, well, the eight-yard line, something like that. But having Jake [Elliott], a nine-year veteran, has plenty of huge kicks in this stadium, around the NFL. You're always going to feel confident when he is on your team, and he still exudes that confidence every day. He walks into this building, doesn't change anything from himself. He's going to go out there and put his best foot forward to help this team, and it's not just those field goals, those extra points. It's also in his kickoffs this year have allowed us to be a pretty good kickoff coverage unit. So Jake's going to keep doing what he does.”
Jake Elliott's late-season turnaround should lead to postseason success
At one point, Elliott had a five-game stretch in which he missed field goals in four contests, which hurt the Eagles in multiple matchups. He finished the season hitting 74.1% of his field goals, marking the second-lowest of his NFL career.
The silver lining for Eagles fans is that he has been much better in the last two games. Elliott has hit all three of his field goals and extra points in that stretch.
Elliott had the same late-season struggles during the Super Bowl run in 2024, and he managed to work through that just fine. He converted 10 of 11 field goals in four games, but missed three extra points.
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Eagles fans still aren't feeling great about Elliott entering the postseason, but there are signs that things are improving and could help the team make another Super Bowl run, even if his future is uncertain.