When you tally up the list of question marks regarding the 2026 Philadelphia Eagles, kicker is not one that leaps to mind.
Apparently for Howie Roseman and the front office, they don’t perceive it to be much of a problem, either. The NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo reported on Thursday that the Eagles have restructured Elliott’s contract for 2026, bringing down his base salary from $6 million to $5 million guaranteed, saving them about $240,000 in cap space this season.
While it’s true every little bit of cap space helps in the here and now, the consequence of this restructuring is that it all but guarantees Elliott will return as the team’s kicker for his 10th season in Philly.
Elliott is the greatest kicker in franchise history. He’s won two Super Bowls and nailed clutch kicks in the postseason along the way and he will be a surefire Eagle Hall of Famer one day. But as a cadre of younger kickers have entered the league hitting the ball father and more accurately than ever before, Elliott’s limitations and performance over the last two seasons makes him more of a liability than an asset.
Elliott simply doesn’t have the range to be a net-advantage for Nick Sirianni anymore. Last year, NFL kickers made a record 12 field goals of 60+ yards, going 54.5% from that distance. Jacksonville kicker Cam Little had kicks of 68 and 67 yards, while Dallas’ Brandon Aubrey nailed multiple attempts from over 60. Rules changes regarding teams having access to the kicking balls have helped improve kickers’ range, except in Philadelphia, where Elliott now struggles to hit field goals from 50+.
In 2025, Elliott went just 4-for-8 from 50 yards or further, a 50% rate, below the league average from 60+. Still, that was better than in 2024, when he didn’t successfully kick a 50+ yard field goal until the final week of the season, and that was from 50 on the nose, going 1-for-7 that season. That’s 5-for-15 (33.3%) over the last two years from 50+ yards. Not only that, Elliott was just 7-for-10 (70.0%) from 40+ in 2025, making him a risky bet whenever the offense would stall outside the 30-yard line.
The numbers bear it out. Elliott has been a below average kicker over the last two seasons.
- NFL FG% 2024: 84.0%
- Elliott FG% 2024: 77.8%
- NFL FG% 2025: 85.6%
- Elliott FG% 2025: 74.1%
While the rest of the league has never been better at not only consistently making field goals of any length but also making longer field goals than ever before, Elliott is heading in the opposite direction.
No one was expecting the Eagles to cut Elliott this off-season, but it was expected they would bring in real competition in training camp to push the veteran. And while they might still bring in a few legs and maybe even carry a long-range field goal/kickoff specialist, it’s hard to imagine Roseman using valuable cap space for three people to kick the ball, having already signed Braden Mann to a contract extension that guarantees him $7 million.
While Elliott does have a couple 60+ field goals on his resume, the last one was a 61-yarder in 2023. It is highly unlikely he’ll hit one from that distance again. But the Eagles don’t need him to be that guy. If he can even just hit 75% of attempts between 50-55 yards and get back to his historic levels of 90%+ on everything inside 50, the Eagles would happily take that.
Perhaps that kind of bounce back season is possible. If not, the kicking game will be an Eagles weakness once again in 2026.
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