A Vote Of Confidence For Eagles' Kicker Jake Elliott

The veteran kicker has struggled over the past two seasons, especially from long distance.

Dec 20, 2025; Landover, Maryland, USA; Philadelphia Eagles place kicker Jake Elliott (4) prepares to kick the ball during the first half against the Washington Commanders at Northwest Stadium. | Amber Searls-Imagn Images

As late as 2023, Jake Elliott was one of the best placekickers in the NFL. Things have been a struggle since but the veteran, who is set to enter 10th season in 2026, received a vote of confidence from GM Howie Roseman Tuesday at the NFL Scouting Combine.

"I think that Jake has been a tremendous kicker for us since we got him off practice squad in Cincinnati in 2017," Roseman told reporters. "Tremendously clutch. Have a lot of confidence in him as a player, as a kicker, as a person, a captain on our team and continue to believe in him as our placekicker."

Elliott is coming off one of the worst seasons of his career, making just 20 of 27 field-goal attempts, a 71.4% conversion rate which was near the bottom of the NFL. It was also the second-worst field-goal percentage of Elliott’s first nine seasons. He's been particularly bad from long range just as there as been an explosion of 50-plus makes around the league.

Long-Range Struggles

Jake Elliott practices his field goals during the Eagles' training camp. | Ed Kracz/Eagles on SI

From 2021 to 2023, Elliott connected on15 of 17 FGs from 50-or-more yards. Over the past two seasons, he's made only 5 of 15 from that distance.

Elliott also missed an important extra point in the Eagles’ 23-19 wild-card loss to the San Francisco 49ers in January.

To Roseman's point, Elliott has been extremely clutch in the postseason for the most part.

In a very large sample size of 16 games, Elliott has has had a steely edge, making 28 of 29 FGs, a gaudy 96.6%. Nine of those makes came in the Eagles' three Super Bowl appearances during his career. In the Eagles' Super Bowl LIX win over Kansas City, Elliott tied a Super Bowl record with four FGs and surpassed Don Chandler's 57-year-old record for the most points (15) in the big game with 16.

Elliott’s contract that runs through the 2028 season and is expensive for a kicker, set to cost $4.893 million against the salary cap in 2026. If the Eagles did release Elliott pre-June 1 it would result in nearly $11M in dead money and over $6M in cap space, an end-game simply not in the cards. That becomes more tenable post-June 1 with just over $7M in dead money and a $2.17M salary-cap hit.

The nature of that contract is likely playing into the team's strategy of trying to build Elliott up moving into the 2026 season.

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