Vic Fangio says new kicking balls rules mean long field goals ‘almost like they need an asterisk’

Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio has been an NFL coach since 1986. He has seen just about every type of change to the modern history of the game. So when he saw Buccaneers kicker Chase McLaughlin nail 65- and 58-yard field goals against his Eagles, he saw the impact of the new kicking ball rules up close and personal.

“You know what you guys have missed?” Fangio said, unprompted. “Not just you but everybody is we gave up a 65-yard field goal and a 58-yard field goal. These kicking balls that they changed this year have drastically changed the kicking game, field goals in particular. So it’s almost like they need an asterisk here. It was the live ball era or the asterisk for those home runs [Barry] Bonds and [Sammy] Sosa and [Mark] McGwire were hitting. The way they’ve changed the ball … the NFL, the kicking ball has drastically changed the field goals.”

Previously, the NFL provided teams with three new kicking balls shortly before the game. This year, the NFL gave every team 60 kicking balls at the start of the year, giving the team unlimited time to break them in. Teams then provide three specially marked kicking balls per game, per the NFL rule book.

“In years past, the officials would rub them down or other people would rub them down and you play with them,” Fangio said. “Now the balls are in house all week and they kick those balls that they’ve had and nobody else touches them. The guy in Dallas is going to hit a 70-plus yarder this year. You can just book it.”

“The guy in Dallas,” of course, is Brandon Aubrey, who hit a 64-yard field goal in Week 2 against the Giants to force overtime. Aubrey’s career long is 65 yards, set last year. McLaughlin’s 65-yarder is the longest NFL-wide this season; his previous career long was 57 yards. Overall, there have been 24 field goals of 55 or more yards through four weeks. Last year, that number at this junction was 18. Fangio said it’s given him something to think about when calling plays in areas of the field that might not have been within a kicker’s previous range.

“We just get to work on it a little bit longer than we used to,” Eagles special team coordinator Michael Clay, speaking immediately after Fangio, said. “We used to only have an hour, now we get the whole week to fill it in, and the kickers get to pick what ball they feel pretty good about.”

Clay explained that kicker Jake Elliott and punter Braden Mann provide feedback to equipment personnel who work on the kicking balls throughout the week. The results are already speaking for themselves. After going 1 for 7 on field goals from 50 or more yards last year, Elliott is 3 for 3 on those kicks this season.

As for whether it’s good for the game …

“Doesn’t the NFL want more points?” Clay asked rhetorically, a smile on his face. “There it is.”