In which era was an NFL field goal most likely to be good: the 1970s, the 1990s or 2020 to 2025?
2020 to 2025, by a wide margin. NFL kickers made 85.0% of regular season field goal attempts in those six seasons, against 77.0% in the 1990s and 61.1% in the 1970s.
Basis for the numbers below: NFL regular season field goals made and attempted, summed by us from the team rows on NFL.com’s team statistics pages, one page per season, 1970 to 2025. The league totals for 2023, 2024 and 2025 match the NFL Record & Fact Book. Percentages and era figures are our arithmetic.
The second before the kick
Picture an empty field late in the afternoon. The ball sits on the grass, the uprights wait at the far end, and nothing in the scene tells you which decade you are standing in. To find out when a kick was most likely to go through, you have to count.
How we count
The numbers here are regular season field goals only; playoff games are left out. For each season from 1970 to 2025, we added up the made and attempted field goals in the team rows of NFL.com’s team statistics pages, 56 seasons in all. The league had 26 teams from 1970 to 1975 and 32 from 2002 onward. For the three newest seasons, our sums match the league totals printed in the NFL Record & Fact Book exactly.
A field goal percentage here is makes divided by attempts, with attempts as NFL.com lists them. For an era, we divide the era’s total makes by its total attempts; we do not average the yearly percentages. The 2026 season is under way as this is written, so it is not counted anywhere on this page. A miss counts as an attempt, which is rather the point of a percentage.
The climb, era by era
By era, the share of attempts made reads 61.1% for 1970 to 1979, 69.7% for the 1980s, 77.0% for the 1990s, 80.5% for the 2000s, 83.9% for the 2010s and 85.0% for 2020 to 2025. Each era is higher than the one before it, and the steps get smaller as the numbers rise. The last era is six seasons, not ten.
Single seasons are bumpier. The 1970 season ended at 478 made of 805 attempts, or 59.4%. By 1990 it was 590 of 793, or 74.4%. The lowest season in the 56 was 1977, at 58.3% (360 of 618), and the highest was 2013, at 86.5% (863 of 998). So the newest season is not the record. In 2025, kickers made 931 of 1,088 attempts, or 85.6%, after 84.0% in 2024 and 85.9% in 2023.
Two seasons inside those decades were unusual. A 57-day players’ strike cut the 1982 regular season schedule from 16 weeks to nine, and in 1974 league attempts fell to 553 from 861 a year earlier. Both seasons are counted in their decades as they stand, and we do not offer a reason for the 1974 drop. For a baseball count on this site, see Swing and a Miss: strikeouts in baseball.
The kicks got longer
Here is the part that changes how to read the climb. In 2000, kicks from 50 yards or more were 68 of 917 attempts, or 7.4%. In 2025 they were 266 of 1,088, or 24.4%, about one try in four. Kickers also made more of them: 38 of 68 in 2000, or 55.9%, and 183 of 266 in 2025, or 68.8%.
The 2025 count by distance shows the slope. From 20 to 29 yards, kickers made 202 of 206; from 30 to 39, 278 of 299; from 40 to 49, 264 of 313; from 50 or more, 183 of 266. The longest of the season went 68 yards, by Cam Little, for Jacksonville at Las Vegas on Nov. 2, 2025.
So the overall share made went up while more of the tries came from long range. That is why this page says field goals were made more often and stops there. These counts measure makes and attempts, not difficulty. We use distance figures from 2000 on only, because the earlier NFL.com distance columns we checked do not add up to the season totals, so we make no distance comparison with earlier years. A column that does not add up is a column we leave alone.
What the counts cannot tell you
We opened no source that explains why the share rose, so we do not offer a reason: no kicker, rule, equipment or field condition is named here as a cause. We also have not confirmed from an NFL glossary how blocked kicks are counted in NFL.com’s attempt column. The table records the result of the kick, not the story behind it. For what the NFL game ball is made of, see Super Bowl cows and the NFL football. For a kick the kicking team hopes to get back, see how often onside kicks work.
The short version
In NFL regular seasons from 2020 to 2025, kickers made 85.0% of field goal attempts, against 77.0% in the 1990s and 61.1% in the 1970s. Each era in between was higher than the one before it, while kicks from 50 yards or more grew from 7.4% of attempts in 2000 to 24.4% in 2025. In 2025 alone, teams tried 1,088 field goals and made 931, so 157 missed.
Last checked: 2026-10-19. This article was machine-checked against the sources below and has not been expert-reviewed. Spotted an error or a newer public figure? Please tell us on our contact page.
Sources
- NFL.com, team statistics, special teams, field goals, regular season, one page per season, 1970 to 2025, https://www.nfl.com/stats/team-stats/special-teams/field-goals/2025/reg/all (year in the path changes; accessed Oct 18, 2026; eight seasons re-summed Oct 19, 2026). Team rows summed by us.
- NFL, 2026 NFL Record & Fact Book (information as of July 14, 2026), pages 267 and 268 (field goals) and page 404 (1982 schedule note), https://static.www.nfl.com/league/apps/league-site/media-guides/2026/2026-Record-and-Fact-Book.pdf (accessed Oct 18, 2026; reopened Oct 19, 2026).
- NFL, 2025 NFL Record & Fact Book (club hosted copy), https://media.browns.1rmg.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/11164514/2025-NFL-Record-and-Fact-Book.pdf (accessed Oct 18, 2026). Used for the 2024 league total.
- NFL, 2024 NFL Record & Fact Book, https://static.www.nfl.com/league/apps/league-site/media-guides/2024/2024-Record-and-Fact-Book.pdf (accessed Oct 18, 2026). Used for the 2023 league total.