http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/10/11/nfl-kickers-are-381-for-383-on-extra-points/
NFL kickers are 381-for-383 on extra points
Posted by Michael David Smith on October 11, 2014
AP
After an offseason in which there was much conversation but no action on extra points, nothing has changed this season: NFL kickers still make well over 99 percent of their point after attempts.
NFL kickers are 381-for-383 on extra points this season, a 99.5 percent clip. The two misses were both blocked. NFL kickers simply don’t miss straight on from 20 yards out. Even the Lions haven’t missed an extra point.
There seems to be an emerging consensus that extra points are so easy that they’re boring, although no one can agree on what the NFL should do about it. Here are some of the options:
1. Keep it as it is. So what if it’s boring? At least it gives you a little more time for a bathroom break after a touchdown.
2. Move kicks to the 15. This was tried during the preseason and didn’t make a big difference. A few more extra points were missed, but that’s partly because during the preseason a lot of extra points are tried by rookie free agent kickers who won’t make the active roster. If you want to make extra points just a little bit harder this is the option, but it will still result in more than 99 percent of extra points succeeding.
3. Move all PATs to the 1. Spotting the ball on point after touchdown attempts a yard closer to the goal line wouldn’t really make extra point kicks any easier, but it would make two-point conversion attempts easier and would therefore incentivize coaches to go for two more often. Two-point conversions are much more exciting plays than extra point kicks, so this rule could make the game more exciting.
4. Make the player who scored the touchdown kick it. This is the wacky option that has no chance of being adopted but would be a lot of fun to watch. Teams would go for two much more often if the player who scored the touchdown had to kick it, but the times when a position player lined up for an extra point kick would be fascinating. There would be all kinds of strategic implications: For instance, if a team has one running back who’s a good kicker and one running back who’s a lousy kicker, they’d turn the better kicker into the goal line back.
Perhaps a tight end who’s a great red-zone threat, like
Julius Thomas, would turn out to be a lousy kicker and wouldn’t get as many targets in the end zone. It would also be hilarious to see a 300-pound lineman score a touchdown off a fumble and then try to kick an extra point.
5. Spot the PAT where the ball crossed the goal line. Taking a page out of the rugby playbook, the point after could be spotted at the place on the field where the ball crossed the goal line. So if a player just barely reaches the ball over the pylon at the corner of the end zone, the ball has to be spotted just inside the sideline, which would make for a very difficult angle on the extra point. It would also create some zany two-point conversion plays with the ball spotted far outside the hashmarks.
6. Follow the lead of the XFL. Vince McMahon’s football league was a failure, but it did have some fun rules. The best remembered is the scramble for the ball replacing the pre-game coin toss, but another was that there were no extra point kicks at all, and teams could either go for a one-point conversion attempt with an offensive play from the 1-yard line, a two-point conversion from the 5-yard line or a three-point conversion from the 10-yard line.
7. Eliminate extra-point kicks entirely. Maybe we should just give teams the option of taking a free point after a touchdown without even having to bother wasting everyone’s time with a gimme kick. Teams could still choose to go for two instead of taking the free point.
