Panthers try 65-plus yard FGs at an astounding rate. Joey Slye has the leg to make them
The NFL record for the longest field goal kicked does not get tested often.
Few coaches trust their kickers to make field goals of 60 yards, let alone attempt to touch Matt Prater’s 64-yard record kick from 2013.
Since 1960, only 37 kicks of 64-plus yards have been attempted. Seven of those have come after Prater made history in a Denver Broncos’ 51-28 win over the Tennessee Titans.
Two of those seven have been by Carolina Panthers kicker Joey Slye in the past three games.
Slye is known for having a strong leg. He leads the league in percentage of kickoffs as touchbacks (88.9%) and during his two years in the league, no one has attempted more field goals of 50-plus yards (15). Of those 15, he has made eight. All eight are from 2019.
This year, Slye is 0-4 from 50-plus and two of those were his historic 65-plus yard game-winning or game-tying attempts.
Often when long kicks are thought of, it’s the distance that is factored in. For “swole” Slye, that’s not really the issue. He has proven he has the leg to make it from a variety of distances. But there is so much more that goes into kicking a field goal of that length than just a strong leg.
Panthers accounting for the wind
There are a couple of major factors to take into account when kicking a 65-yard field goal: tempo and aggression to the ball and wind.
Often, kickers will swing harder knowing the ball has further to travel.
“The top tier guys in the NFL once they are getting past 58-59 yards they’re definitely going to swing a little bit harder,” Dan Orner, a Charlotte-based kicking and punting coach said. “You have to plan for your mistakes.”
The other factor of wind and weather is something that is important for a kicker going into every game. Understanding the circumstances that could impact the way that a ball will travel is part of how they do their job.
Orner is a former UNC kicker who works with placekickers and punters from the high school, collegiate and professional ranks. He is Slye’s private kicking coach and has known him since he was a teenager. Orner also works with Panthers rookie punter Joe Charlton.
After the Panthers’ 33-31 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs last week, Slye explained how some of his pregame work involved watching former Panthers kicker Harrison Butker warm up. How he approached testing the wind and molding the ball the way he liked. Watching the home stadium’s kicker is a good tool as those kickers have a better understanding of how to adjust to the stadium’s conditions.
“Think of a stadium like a cake, there’s different layers to your favorite cake and in some stadiums there’s low-level winds, there’s a second layer of wind that’s probably 15 yards up the uprights and sometimes there’s a third layer that’s well above the uprights,” Orner said. “I think the wind is probably one of the biggest factors.”
Wind clearly impacted the second historic kick that Slye attempted that ultimately resulted in the loss to Chiefs. Slye’s 67-yard attempt sailed wide right, straying far from the goal post. Distance-wise, it likely would have been good.
But all day the winds were an issue. Butker missed a 48-yard field goal that sailed wide left. Slye missed a 51-yard field goal off the left upright going in the other direction than the kick at end of the game.
“With me, it’s sometimes difficult just because I do typically have a stronger leg, so sometimes I can swing and hit a ball clean enough that can kind of cut through the wind,” Slye said after the game. “(On that kick), I hit the ball that I wanted to hit, had the right trajectory, had everything that I wanted, wind holds it up and puts it to its apex quicker and then the ball tends to get taken by the wind a lot quicker because that velocity’s not climbing now, it’s coming on the down slope so the ball starts fading. I’m still surprised that ball missed off that left upright, but there are just certain situations that you’ve got to play”
The other potentially historic kick he missed was a 65-yard attempt in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome that would have tied the score against the New Orleans Saints in Week 7 with two minutes remaining on the clock. That kick was only two rotations short.
While weather changes aren’t as much of a factor indoors, there can still be wind changes if doors are opened to the outside. But it’s largely a space where those factors don’t need to be considered.
“As you can see from live operation in a dome where it’s relatively a vacuum, I’m good from like 64.8,” Slye joked after the Saints game.
Getting a chance to attempt those types of kicks in a season is rare. Only one other player — Washington’s Mark Moseley in 1979 — has attempted two field goals of 65-plus yards in one season since 1960.
“There’s a reason why there’s only a handful of guys (that have made field goals) over 60 yards. The percentage of that kick is very low,” Orner said. “It was probably one of the straightest balls he hit all year. It was two rotations off. It was great trajectory line, and I think he would have played it similar, if not the same way, if he did it again.”
Joey Slye’s Preparation
During practice, the Panthers will run through wet-ball drills, try kicking from both ends of the field and even do live field goals during the blocking period of practice, something not every NFL team does.
“We apply pressure,” special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn said. “End of half, end of game, where guys are going to jump offsides and you’re going to have to have extra pressure, all those things.”
While Slye has a big leg, he’s not often just trying field goals to see how far he can kick from, and he doesn’t try to stretch himself pregame or in practice. That can be judged in other ways.
“We’ll usually go to say, we go to 63. And if we go to that distance, then it’s like, ‘OK, cleared the uprights by 5 yards, cleared the uprights by 3, whatever, you have a pretty good feel based on that,” Blackburn said. “It’s like think maxing out on the bench press, right? You don’t have to just put four or five on the bar and do it once. Just do 315 10 times and you know your max is about four or five.”
Prior to games, kickers will warm up and test the wind from all over the field and different distances. Slye will talk with Blackburn often about how things feel and the current conditions in different areas of the field. Games are partly prepared for by watching the weather and determining the right cleats to wear. Come game time and during the game, Blackburn will give Panthers head coach Matt Rhule the percentage of accuracy he thinks a kick will have.
“(Coach Rhule) will ask me for a percentage on the kick (based on) where we’re at on the field and where my confidence level is,” Blackburn said. “I give him what I think the percentage of kick is based upon everything that’s going on.”
Slye is also working with a rookie holder in Charlton out of South Carolina, which adds another potential hurdle with both players still gaining experience.
In additional to physical preparation, there is also the mental side of being a placekicker in the NFL. He keeps track of how he feels and observations from kicks in a notebook and breaks them down through evaluation. While Slye’s confidence has only improved in his second season in the league, Blackburn says, being able to make those big kicks late isn’t just about feeling prepared
With his kickers, Orner likes to have them attempt field goals that may be unattainable. Kick a field goal from 50 yards out, so that when you try a 40-yard kick or 30-yarder, it feels that much closer. It’s all perception of how far away the uprights appear based on your experiences.
Based on the recent trust the Panthers coaching staff has shown in Slye’s leg, trying a kick beyond that may be next on the practice itinerary.
“I think one of the things (Slye) and I will start doing is probably start hitting some field goals from 80 yards,” Orner said. “That way even if he misses them short, when he gets up to 65, it’ll still look like a 50-yarder and hopefully, mentally, he can swing the same way he would.”
Setting up tough situations
When asked about the decision-making process at the end of games that have left Slye with these field-goal opportunities, Rhule pointed first to the fact that those decisions, to go for field goals or not, come down to him and him alone. A variety of factors — the percentage someone like Blackburn provides, input from other coaches, down and distance, time on the clock, analytics, feel of the game — can play a part in that type of decision-making.
But Rhule also said that Slye should not have been in the position to attempt those kicks.
“I’m always trying to improve the things that happened before that so we’re not in that situation,” Rhule said. “There’s some things you guys see, there’s also a lot of other things that if we just kind of (eliminate penalties) and just kind of execute, not try to do too much, maybe instead of being a 65-yarder, it’s a 55-yarder and we have a chance to win the game.”
On the play prior to Slye’s 65-yard field-goal attempt, quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was sacked for a loss of 8 yards. A 57-yard field goal became a would-be historic 65-yarder.
The drive leading up to the 67-yard attempt in Kansas City featured a hands-to-the-face penalty on left guard Chris Reed on a first-and-10 play and three consecutive plays gaining a combined zero yards (including spiking the football to stop the clock) immediately preceded the attempt.
The Panthers aren’t sending Slye out there solely to try and make history. But the recent attempts show a confidence in the kicker late in games as opposed to trying Hail Marys or a trick play.
It’s also symbolic of the Panthers’ inability to close games offensively or give Slye a shot that many kickers wouldn’t have a chance to make.
Every game the Panthers have been in has been close. Only one loss has come by more than one score (Week 2 vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers).
Slye might get another opportunity like that soon, but with the weather changing as winter nears, that’s no guarantee. The ball does not travel as far in cold temperatures, and these are kicks that are tried only in specific situations. But he has shown that he is an option for the Panthers when they’re trying for a miracle from deep, even if he has come up just short.
This story was originally published November 15, 2020 at 6:30 AM.
