Bills FG kickers

Steve Christie's success from long range and in the clutch is what makes him the best kicker in Bills history. This is a follow-up to last week's blog on the study of the best place-kickers in NFL history by the website pro-football-reference.com.

Here are the stats for Scott Norwood (7 years as a Bill), Steve Christie (9 years) and Rian Lindell (6 years) from 30 yards and out:

Kicker -----   30-39 (pct.)  ------40-49 (pct.)  ------ 50-and-over (pct.)

Norwood   44 of 57 (77.19) ----- 37 of 61 (60.6)  ----- 2 of 10 (20.0)

Christie    78 of 96 (81.25) ----- 57 of 81 (70.37) ----- 13 of 21 (46.4)

Lindell      47 of 50 (94.0)  ------ 33 of 51 (64.7) ------- 8 of 13  (61.5)

Accuracy percentages gradually have gone up over the years. But it's obvious Norwood simply did not have as strong a leg. Christie's track record from 40-49 - the tough kicks that a team needs to get - set him apart. The league average during his career was about 65 percent from that distance, which he outperformed. Take out one bad year from that range (1999 when he was 3 of 9) and his numbers are even better. Christie also has the longest field goal ever for the Bills - 59 - and the longest in post-season -54 in the Super Bowl. Christie's average from 30-39 is just a shade under the league average during his tenure (about 83 percent), but remember he was kicking often in bad conditions.Lindell's record from 30-39 is sensational, well better than the league average during his tenure, which is about 86 percent. He's not nearly as good as Christie from 40-49, and that's the make-or-break distance for a kicker. You need those points, and it's reasonable to expect them. The 50-plus kicks are gravy. The league average from 40-49 since 2002 is about 72 percent.

John Leypoldt kicked 5 1-2 years for the Bills in the 1970s and kicked well. He was 26 of 37 (70.2) from 30 to 39. The league average from 71 to 75 was about 64 percent. He was 21 of 42 from 40-49 and the league average was about 42 percent. He was 3 of 17 for the Bills from 50-plus. He was a good kicker, but his career with the Bills did not match that of the above three kickers.

Pete Gogolak only kicked two seasons with the Bills. He was very good - going 19 of 29 (65.5) in 1964 and 28 of 46 (60.9) in 1965. The 28 of 46 both were league-leading totals.

---Mark Gaughan

Comments

[CB]

To make a fair comparison you need to count the 40+ yarders they didn't even try because they knew Lindell would miss.
If the game, season or Super Bowl were on the line: My first choice would be Christe and I might even take Norwide over Lindell.

[Steve in Wheatfield]

uhhhh....I believe it was a 47 yarder.

[Bob in San Jose]

Christie's percentage from 40-49 yards is 61.9%, not 46.4% as the chart states.

[dreameagle]

slow day in the newsroom?

you can throw up all the cute statistics you want--Samuel Clements told you what they are worth;

they will never obscure the fact that Scott Nor-wide choked, humped the hound, screwed the pooch on the one most important kick of his life that happened also to be one of the shortest--the one play that would've separated you from the Many Ha-Ha Bi-Queens..a fate no one deserves to be tethered to, not even you...