Special Teams has been a big time contributor during this run since the Bye.  Great performance and depth too.

i agree that Long Snapper is going to be competitive this coming Offseason.

Time to do the championship game against Washington. I might take months to get around to doing the Super Bowl...win or lose.

Braden Mann only punted two times. He averaged about 39.5 yards and 4.32 hangtime. Neither reached the 4.5 second mark. One was hit outside the numbers. Tress Way only punted twice for the Commanders. He "averaged" 46.0 yards and 3.86 hangtime. That was not hit outside the numbers. The better statistical day goes to Mann, putting his mark at 11-8-1 on the season.

Through twenty games, Mann is averaging 47.5 yards and 4.39 hangtime with 43% reaching the 4.5 second mark and 47% hit outside the numbers. Opposing punters are averaging 46.2 yards and 4.44 hangtime with 56% at 4.5 seconds and 55% hit outside the numbers. It's the familiar refrain...Eagles are hitting it further, Opponents are hitting it higher and a little more toward the sideline.

The snap to foot times on punts were around 1.97 for the Eagles and 2.05 for Washington. Again, the Eagles were quicker. They almost always are. Staggeringly so. 

Jake Elliott kicked off nine times for the Eagles. He averaged about 66.3 yards with an average starting spot of 28.7. (One of those had the Eagles in possession of the ball!) Zane Gonzalez kicked off six times. He averaged about 61.2 yards with an average starting spot of 29.5. This is a somewhat misleading statistic since the Eagles "took a knee" on one of their returns.

On the season, Elliott is averaging 67.3 yards and 28.3. The Eagles as a team are averaging 68.1 and 29.7. Opponents are averaging about 66.4 and 29.4. The switch to Elliott has been a productive move. Prior to then, opponents were about a yard better on average but that has almost evaporated entirely (29.4 vs 29.7). Incidentally I wouldn't be surprised if we see all touchbacks this coming Sunday. Indoors and all.

The touch to toe times on place kicks were around 1.25-1.30 for the Eagles. Roughly the same for Washington.

Elliott missed his only field goal attempt from a distance with an expected value of about 52.6%. His Elo Rating dropped to 2278, which ranks twenty-second in the league. That's 0.03 standard deviations BELOW the mean. The league average is 2281. The rating of Eagles Opponents improved to 2275, which would rank twenty-fourth. That's 0.10 STD below the mean.

Other stuff:

* Will Shipley had a strong kick return, taking the ball from the 5 all the way out to the 41 (although it looked like it may have been officially put down at the 40).

* Jalyx Hunt and Sydney Brown had strong tackles on kick coverage.

* The Eagles fell victim to a nicely executed fake punt. The primary victim was Jeremiah Trotter. The Eagles had two defenders on the Washington gunner that was lined up on the right side. The Commanders were very clever with the way their gunner handled the play. He immediately ran out of bounds, drawing the two defenders out of the way. McCollum turned his back and never saw what was happening. In the meantime, their personal protector headed out to the right which forced Will Shipley to cover him, thus vacating the middle of the field. This left their tight end on the left in a 1-1 matchup with Trotter. He easily beat him at the snap. At that point, Tress Way had two options, both of which were likely to be completed. Shipley was caught covering his own man while trying to cover the man that Trotter had missed. I'm not sure this play works AT ALL if the Eagles hadn't double teamed the gunner. Given the circumstances (a fake did not seem far fetched), I consider this a poor coaching decision.

* Kenny Gainwell muffed a kickoff but got a very lucky bounce right to him. This was right after Washington had cut the score to 14-12 and had all the momentum. This could have been disastrous.

* Shipley forced a fumble on a kickoff which Gainwell recovered. This was certainly one of the plays of the game as far as momentum swing is concerned.

* Gainwell smartly slid down in the field of play to end the first half. Only bad things were likely to happen if he'd have tried to return it. I was calling for precisely this as the ball was being kicked, so I was pleased to see the Eagles coaching staff being on top of things.

* Cooper DeJean had a decent return on the one Washington punt. He got what he could.

* While perhaps not a special teams play, the two point conversion that the Commanders pulled off was extremely annoying. They had TWO linemen downfield BY A LOT. Meanwhile it seems like the Eagles are flagged every week for having a lineman's toe over the line in similar circumstances. I remember Landon Dickerson getting flagged once this year on a ticky-tack call like this. But in a championship game, no officials can see TWO guys? Holy Hell.

* Kelee Ringo had a foot in the endzone on an bat of a ball which would have put the ball down at around the three yard line. Instead it resulted in a touchback. Super close play but accurately officiated.

* I'm not 100% certain that the ball reached the endzone on Elliott's last kickoff which resulted in a touchback when the return man downed the ball. At the very least, it was super close.

* Once again Rick Lovato continues to frighten. He had two errant snaps which were handled nicely by Mann. One on the PAT to go up 27-12, the other on the one which put us up 55-23.

 

First in a series of interesting Special Teams videos

 

 

 

I guess it's time. Chiefs blowout. Might have been important for some reason.

Braden Mann only punted twice. He averaged about 43.0 yards and 4.54 hangtime. Both were hit outside the numbers. One had a hangtime of 4.5 or greater. Matt Araiza punted six times for the Chiefs. He averaged about 51.8 yards and 4.65 hangtime. The first two were hit outside the numbers. The other four were not. Four had a hangtime of over 4.5, including two over 5.0. The better statistical game goes to Araiza, putting Mann's final mark at 11-9-1.

On the season, Mann averaged 47.4 yards and 4.39 hangtime with 43% at 4.5 or more and 49% outside the numbers. Opposing punters averaged 46.6 yards and 4.46 hangtime with 57% at 4.5 or more and 58% hit outside the numbers. So overall the Eagles punted it further while opponents punted it higher.

Oh...average snap to foot times on punts were around 2.0 for both teams. Probably a little better for the Eagles. Both teams were a little slower than average on their respective first punts.

Once again Jake Elliott handled the kickoff duties. He kicked off a lot (hooray!) His nine kickoffs averaged about 71.9 yards and the Chiefs average starting spot was 27.6. Harrison Butker only had two real kickoffs. He averaged about 69.0 yards with an average Eagles starting spot of 30.0.

On the season, Elliott averaged 68.2 with 28.1. The Eagles as a team averaged 68.4 and 29.6. Opponents averaged 66.5 and 29.5. Conclusion: the other team was more willing to kick the ball short and force the Eagles to return it. Ultimately it all came out pretty even in the end in terms of field position. 

Snap to foot times on Eagles place kickers were roughly between 1.25 and 1.30, which is completely acceptable. The Chiefs never kicked.

Elliott made all four of his attempts from distances with an expected value (based on leaguewide kicking data at the turn of this century) of about 2.88. Including the postseason, he made 38 of 47 from distances with an expected value of 36.91. So he was +1.09 which means he "earned" the Eagles about 3.3 points above expected. It was definitely his worst season as a pro but he did have a solid postseason.

Also, Rick Lovato had a good game snapping after a season which had some uncomfortable moments. I'm not shocked in the least that the Eagles subsequently decided to move on from him. Overall he did a good job for us for eight years, so no hard feelings as he walks out the door. I wish him well.

Elliott's Elo Kicking Rating improved to 2298, which ranks fourteenth in the league. That's +0.27 STD above the mean. The rating of Eagles opponents remained at 2275, which would rank twenty-third. That's -0.10 STD below the mean. The league average is 2281. The Top Five kickers at the conclusion of the postseason were Folk (2403, +1.96); Boswell (2399, +1.89); Dicker (2380, +1.59); McLaughlin (2369, +1.41); and Sanders (2365, +1.34). The Bottom Five kickers were Ryland (2221, -0.97); Shrader (2216, -1.05); Zuerlein (2216, -1.05); York (2163, -1.91); and Moody (2161, -1.94). 

Other stuff:

* Gang tackling on the Eagles first punt.

* Cooper DeJean had a pretty good punt return of about thirteen yards.

* Kenneth Gainwell made a tackle on a semi-dangerous kickoff return by the Chiefs. Good play.

* Lovato was called twice for motion on field goal attempts. Both were ticky-tacky calls in my opinion. 

* Jordan Mailata was flagged when he flinched on a field goal attempt. That one was quite obvious.

* Avonte Maddox and Grant Calcaterra both recovered last gasp Chiefs onside kicks to help secure the victory.

THIS WAS A GREAT SEASON, FOLKS!!!!!

Here's a quick look at the preseason game against the Bengals. I normally handle preseason games differently in terms of what I'm looking at. I don't even bother looking at the other team.

Braden Mann punted four times with an average of about 47.3 yards and 4.57 hangtime. Two of the punts had a hangtime of over 4.5 seconds. Overall a solid game, although it was skewed a bit perhaps because his final punt was a bomb. The other three were a little shorter than you'd expect. But whatever.

Jake Elliott kicked off seven times. He "averaged" 62.9 yards and 3.67 hangtime. The hangtime is absolutely irrelevant. The distance was interesting. Five of his seven kickoffs were fielded at the one yard line. With the new rule this year which places the ball at the 35 on touchbacks which land in or beyond the endzone, it seems that the Eagles strategy will be to delicately place the ball as close to the goal line as possible. And it looks like they prefer to have Elliott do this instead of Mann. As you'll recall, Mann handled kickoff duties for most of last year when the intention was to simply blast the ball into the endzone and put the team on the thirty yard line. Mann has enough leg to do that but it's unlikely that he is skilled enough to control placement like Elliott can. So, good job by Elliott in this game.

Elliott missed a long field goal but it ended up not counting because of a penalty on the Bengals. He made all his other kicks including three extra points. Including the PATs, he was 5-for-5 with an expected value of 4.39. He scored nine points when the expected number of points was 7.8. So yes, a good game for him.

The new snapper. Johnstone. I watched him some in warmups and he looked fine. He appears a bit smaller than you'd like in a snapper. Accuracy appeared good. In the game, he was okay but there were a couple of snaps that were a little off target. On one kick, Mann had to reach up a bit. There was also a snap that was somewhat low and in front. For a "replacement" he was absolutely fine and I suspect the guy has a chance to make it in the league. But I think I'd rather go with a proven guy like Hughley -- he was signed for a reason. Oh...from what I could estimate, Johnstone's punt snaps were coming in at just under 0.8 seconds. Absolutely fine, although teams generally prefer them closer to 0.7.

Oh...Mann attempted one PAT and was successful. I didn't notice it was him when watching the game. It wasn't until the next day that I found this out.

And...I also recently learned of a rule change this year which should improve the kicking game. The year that Tony Romo had his holding gaffe against the Seahawks (and wasn't that hilarious and glorious at the same time?), the league was forcing teams to use slick balls right "out of the box". Presumably that's what led to his screw up. After that year, the league changed the rules slightly and allowed teams access to the "K-balls" about an hour before the game to get them better conditioned for the kickers. Not surprisingly kicking effectiveness jumped right around that time. THIS YEAR the league is allowing kickers to access the balls a couple of DAYS before the game rather than simply an hour. This will give them time to get them even better conditioned (softer?). It's perhaps not surprising that we just saw a 70-yard field goal being made the other day.

Other stuff:

• Cameron Latu with a tackle on a kickoff.

• Andre Sam had a couple of tackles on kickoff including one on a big return that was negated by a penalty.

• Avery Williams was kinda meh on his punt returns but I felt like he at least looked good fielding the ball.

• Ainais Williams had a big punt return but was a little awkward fielding it. Kinda over the shoulder for no reason. I just don't have a good vibe about him fielding the ball consistently. He may prove me wrong (and I hope he does.)

• VanSumeren had a tackle on a kick.

• Parry Nickerson made a kickoff tackle. He was also flagged for a hold on a punt return.

• Keilan Robinson returned a couple of kickoffs and looked adequate but nothing special.

Let's do this Browns game...quickly.

Braden Mann punted seven times with an average of about 50.7 yards and 4.71 hangtime. His preseason average is at 49.4 yards and 4.65. Those are good numbers but August numbers are always going to be deceptively good. Hot weather. The ball travels. But this is still good.

Jake Elliott kicked off three times. He averaged 61.3 yards (to about the three or four yard line) with an irrelevant 3.38 hangtime. His preseason average is 62.4 yards (about the two and a half yard line) with an irrelevant 3.58 hangtime. I'm impressed with the precision he is showing in getting the ball as close to the goal line as possible. That's a good thing and it's probably the reason he'll be doing kickoffs (probably) this year instead of Mann, who has a big enough leg to simply drill the ball into the endzone for touchbacks.

Jake made his only kick, a routine PAT. The expectancy is about 0.89. On the preseason, he's attempted six kicks (including PATs) and made them all. The expectancy was 5.28. He's scored 10 points with an expectancy of about 8.7. Again, no issues at all. This is good.

We were finally able to see our new veteran snapper. I was a little concerned in warmups when it looked like the velocity on his punt snaps wasn't great but my angle of observation wasn't ideal. In the game, he was absolutely fine. I was clocking him at around .75 to .80 on all his snaps. You'd love to see .7 but no worries here. My only concern -- and this is so nitpicky as to probably be meaningless -- was that his snaps were maybe maybe maybe a hair low.

Other stuff:

• Montrell Johnson returned some kickoffs and was kinda meh.

• Smael Mondon made a tackle on a punt.

• Ben VanSumeren was flagged for a false start. He later returned a kickoff and displayed a nice level of physicality on contact. I wouldn't rule him out as a candidate back there this season.

• Cameron Latu had an excellent tackle on a punt. I would say he's flashed a little bit in the two games. I don't expect him to make the team but he appears practice squad worthy.

6 hours ago, FranklinFldEBUpper said:

Let's do this Browns game...quickly.

Braden Mann punted seven times with an average of about 50.7 yards and 4.71 hangtime. His preseason average is at 49.4 yards and 4.65. Those are good numbers but August numbers are always going to be deceptively good. Hot weather. The ball travels. But this is still good.

When punts get longer I always worry about the gunners from the punt return team not having time enough to be close enough to the punt returner when he catches the ball. Have you any thoughts on that? Is there a formula you have developed on the relationship of distance to needed hang time?

6 hours ago, FranklinFldEBUpper said:

Jake Elliott kicked off three times. He averaged 61.3 yards (to about the three or four yard line) with an irrelevant 3.38 hangtime. His preseason average is 62.4 yards (about the two and a half yard line) with an irrelevant 3.58 hangtime. I'm impressed with the precision he is showing in getting the ball as close to the goal line as possible. That's a good thing and it's probably the reason he'll be doing kickoffs (probably) this year instead of Mann

In addition to placement close to the goal line, is there any advantage to placing the kick landing spot nearer the sidelines rather than between the hashmarks?

If th ball lands at the one yard line and bounces into or through the end zone, how does the new rule work?

11 hours ago, mattwill said:

In addition to placement close to the goal line, is there any advantage to placing the kick landing spot nearer the sidelines rather than between the hashmarks?

If th ball lands at the one yard line and bounces into or through the end zone, how does the new rule work?

1) Yes.

2) I believe that wasn't changed. Touchback to the twenty.

11 hours ago, mattwill said:

When punts get longer I always worry about the gunners from the punt return team not having time enough to be close enough to the punt returner when he catches the ball. Have you any thoughts on that? Is there a formula you have developed on the relationship of distance to needed hang time?

I've never looked for a formula for that. My attitude has always been that it's up to the punting team to tackle the guy.

1 hour ago, FranklinFldEBUpper said:

1) Yes.

2) I believe that wasn't changed. Touchback to the twenty.

Not touchback to the 35?

That first FG snap in the Jets game looked a bit low. I’ll be interested to hear what Franklin thinks about it.

On 8/22/2025 at 7:58 PM, mattwill said:

Not touchback to the 35?

On a ball that lands into or out of the endzone, it goes to the 35 (not the 30 as last year).

A ball that hits in the field of play and rolls into the endzone goes out to the 20 (same as last year).

3 minutes ago, FranklinFldEBUpper said:

On a ball that lands into or out of the endzone, it goes to the 35 (not the 30 as last year).

A ball that hits in the field of play and rolls into the endzone goes out to the 20 (same as last year).

Thanks.

Jets game stuff, just to be complete.

Braden Mann punted six times with an average of about 48.3 yards and 4.50 hangtime. His preseason average was 49.1 and 4.60 hangtime. The snap to foot times were generally around 2.0 to 2.05 seconds (a couple slower) with snap to hand times of about .78-.80. That's my best estimate. The first punt snap was a little low, which is something I had seen in the Browns game, both on punts and FG/PAT snaps. Just something to keep an eye on in the future.

Jake Elliott kicked off six times with an average of about 56.8 yards (it looked like since he had demonstrated the ability to hit the ball consistently to the 1-yard line in the previous two games that he wanted to aim for somewhere between the five and ten) and 3.14 hangtime. The latter needs to be taken with a grain of salt because I really don't know what the hangtime was on the first punt. The hangtime is meaningless of course, but I'm just here for the facts. Elliott's preseason average was 60.3 yards and 3.42 hangtime.

Elliott made all of his kicks in this game. Four field goals and one PAT. The expectancy on his 5 kicks was 3.7. The expected points was 9.4 (he scored 13). In the preseason he made 11-of-11 kicks with an expectancy of 9.0. He scored 23 points with an expectancy of about 18.1. So yes, a very good preseason for our veteran kicker. Probably (certainly?) his best preseason ever.

The snap to foot times on place kicks was around 1.22 to 1.25. That's my best estimation. That's a good number. And Hughlett's snaps were fine

Other random stuff:

• Ainias Smith made a risky play on his first punt return. Instead of fielding it he tried to make a return and got nailed instantly. Not a smart decision. He had a couple other returns which didn't show much. Frankly he's never shown much of anything as a return specialist in two preseasons so I'm not surprised he was cut. You hate blowing a fifth round pick but that happens a lot across the league. You just move on.

• Oh, Smith also returned a kickoff and went sideways way too eagerly. On kicks you need to get upfield ASAP. Again, I'm not surprised at all that he didn't make the team. I never saw it with him.

• Mann was forced to make a tackle on a punt.

• Avery Williams had a ho-hum kickoff return. I kinda thought he had a chance to make it as a return guy but I'm also not surprised he didn't make it.

• There was a weird screw-up on a pun which the Eagles should have downed inside the five yard line. #35 (Robinson, I guess but weren't there duplicate numbers?) smartly didn't down it because he knew he had gone out of bounds. #48 could have downed it but thought the other dude would. The funny thing was that the guy who was smart in the first place ended up catching it in the endzone which resulted in a penalty anyway.

• Cameron Latu caught my eye again covering kicks and punts. I'm happy they brought him back to the practice squad. I can envision him getting a couple of call-ups during the season to play on specials.

Some Cowboys game stuff

Season opener against Dallas. This may have been the best performance by an Eagles special teams unit since I've started tracking things. They were really, really good.

Braden Mann punted three times with an average of 48.3 yards and 4.69 hangtime. Only one of the three had a hangtime of 4.5 second or greater (but it was a beaut at around 5.7 seconds!!). All three were hit outside the numbers. Bryan Anger punted twice for Dallas. He averaged about 43.0 yards and 4.46 hangtime. One had a hangtime of at least 4.5 seconds and one (the other one) was hit outside the numbers. Very comfortable statistical win for Mann, putting his mark at 1-0-0 on the season.

The snap to foot times on punts were significantly better for the Eagles. I would say they were at around 1.95 compared to Dallas being, on average, around 2.20. On the snaps I was able to get a handle on, it looked like Charley Hughlett's snap times were around .73 seconds, which is more than fine.

Jake Elliott kicked off five times. He averaged about 58.0 yards (and yes, I know this is a silly thing to track with the silly rules, but it's data that's there so it's not difficult to do). The average starting position was at around 23.0 yards. This included the penalty to the Cowboys on one return. It did NOT include the penalty on Carter which moved the initial starting position. My view is that that penalty wasn't part of the play. I think that's reasonable. Brandon Aubry kicked off four times for Dallas. He averaged 63.8 yards with an average starting spot at 28.0. So the Eagles were getting five more yards of field position per kickoff than Dallas was. That's a lot.

Elliott make his only field goal attempt. It was from a distance with an expectancy of about 41%. His Elo Kicking Rating improved to 2309, which ranks twelfth in the league. Tha's 0.33 standard deviations above the mean. The League Average as well as the rating of Eagles Opponents is 2287. The Top Five Kickers after week 1 are Boswell (2414, +1.85 standard deviations above the mean); Folk (2406, +1.73); Dicker (2383, +1.40); Aubry (2367, +1.17); and Myers (2359, +1.05). The Bottom Five kickers are Ryland (2217, -1.01); Fitzgerald (2208, -1.14); Borregales (2190, -1.40); Szmyt (2187, -1.44); and Moody (2122, -2.39). Moody was subsequently released, which isn't surprising because he's been bad his entire NFL career. If he hadn't been a third round pick, he'd have been gone a long time ago.

The snap to foot times on place kicks for the Eagles was generally around 1.25 seconds. The Cowboys were much more deliberate on theirs. Aubry is very casual in his mechanics. He's always gotten away with it but I still think there's a critical blocked kick in his NFL career. They were around 1.33 with one of them over 1.40.

Other stuff:

• The opening kickoff was a tragedy. Ben VanSumeren suffered a serious knee injury to the same (I believe) knee he injured a year ago. Truly sad.

• Marcus Epps was flagged for moving on the Cowboys first kickoff which cost the Eagles five free yards of field position. Silly.

• Joshua Uche with a good tackle on a kickoff. I believe Jeremiah Trotter got involved in that one too.

• Elliott did a nice job of directional kicking, consistently forcing the dangerous Turpin to have to cover a lot of ground to field the ball. This a) potentially tires him a bit; and b) potentially puts him in a slightly off balance position which would enable the cover guys to swarm in on him quicker. If you noticed, the Cowboys had only one returner back there for at least two of those kicks. I said to the guys next to me at the game that I bet they put a second guy back there the next time, and that's exactly what they did.

• Sydney Brown with a tackle on a kickoff.

• Will Shipley bobbled a kickoff and ended up taking a hard shot as he was tackled. We never saw him again. It appears he suffered an injury of import.

• John Metchie returned one kickoff and later made a tackle on an Eagles kickoff. It appears that he could be a useful ST player this season. A contributing one at least.

• With Britain Covey not activated, the Eagles used Jahan Dotson to return punts. He fair caught both of them. It didn't really show up in the television coverage, but he bobbled the second one kinda scarily. Yikes.

• Mann did a superb job of directional punting in the fourth quarter, repeatedly hitting the ball to the sideline and keeping it out of the returner's hands. He also did something that I believe isn't that easy to do. And that's face in one direction as he's preparing to punt and then at the last instant hit it across his body to the other direction. Really nice job.

• On the one punt of Mann's that sailed out of bounds the official came in and spotted the ball at the thirteen yard line. And then when they came back from the commercial break the ball was resting on the eleven yard line. I'm wondering who told him to move the ball back two yards. It's HIS call, isn't it?

Chiefs game. Another strong performance by the Eagles. The Chiefs impressed as well.

Braden Mann punted five times. He averaged about 54.8 yards and 4.98 hangtime. (Those are incredible numbers!) All five had a hangtime of at least 4.5 seconds. Three of the five were hit outside the numbers. Matt Araiza had an even more incredible game for the Chiefs. He averaged about 59.0 yards and 5.06 hangtime. (Oh My God!) All three were over 4.5 seconds. One was hit outside the numbers. The better statistical day goes to Kansas City, putting Mann's mark at 1-1-0 on the season.

Through two games, Mann is averaging 52.4 yards and 4.87 hangtime with 75% at 4.5 or higher and 75% hit outside the numbers. Opposing punters are averaging 52.6 yards and 4.82 hangtime. 80% are at 4.5 or higher and 40% are hit outside the numbers.

This was one of those rare games when the opposing team was actually a bit quicker with their punts than the Eagles. I got the Eagles at around 2.0 (Hughlett's snaps seemed to be about .75ish) and the Chiefs at around 1.95.

Jake Elliott kicked off four times. He averaged 58.8. yards (yes, I know it's an irrelevant statistic) with the average subsequent starting position at 28.3 Harrison Butker had three legitimate kickoffs. He averaged 61.3 yards and 26.0. On the season, Elliott is averaging 58.3 yards (he's not placing his kicks as close to the goal line as he was in preseason, presumably intentionally) and 25.3. Opposing kickers are averaging 62.7 and 27.1. So the Eagles are actually doing better than the opposing team this year on kickoffs. Surprising since their return game doesn't really impress.

The snap times on Eagles placekicks was around 1.30 from snap to foot. The Chiefs were a tick slower than that, I'd say. Maybe around 1.33 or 1.34-ish.

Elliott made his only two field goal attempts from distances (long distances) with an approximate expectancy of 1.01. On the season, he's 3-of-3 from distances with an expectancy of 1.42. So he's +1.58, which means he's earned the Eagles about 4.7 points over expected value. His Elo Kicking Rating improved to 2326, which ranks eleventh in the league. That's 0.55 standard deviations above the mean. The league average is 2292. The rating of "Eagles Opponents" dropped to 2284 (18th in the league if it were an actual single kicker rather than a conglomeration of multiple men) which is -0.13 STD from the mean.

The Top Five Kickers after two weeks are Boswell (2420, +2.08); Folk (2409, +1.90); Aubrey (2394, +1.66); Dicker (2385, +1.51); and Prater-PS (2362, +1.14). The Bottom Five kickers are Ryland (2226, -1.08); Koo (2220, -1.18); Fitzgerald (2209, -1.36); Borregales (2202, -1.47); and Szmyt (2191, -1.65).

Other stuff:

• John Metchie returned a couple of kickoffs and looked rather ordinary. It sure seemed like the Chiefs preferred him getting the ball than Tank Bigsby, who was also back deep and seemed to do a good job of blocking.

• Cameron Latu continues to really impress me on specials. He came hard from the edge on the first Chiefs punch and powered his way to some real good pressure. He came close from the other side on another punt later in the game.

• Sydney Brown, Cameron Latu, and Cooper DeJean combined on a tackle on a kickoff.

• On one deep Eagles punt, three Eagles players were well positioned to contain the Kansas City return man but allowed a 20+ yard return. It was Mondon, Ringo, and Latu. Two of those guys may have been blocked in the back without a call.

• On one mediocre Metchie kick return, Patrick Johnson missed a block which allowed a free run by the Chiefs coverage man.

• Charley Hughlett had the most ridiculous call made against him when he allegedly moved the ball forward on a potential 52-yard field goal. What I found weird about it is that the flag seemed to come many seconds after the so-called infraction. I say that because when the play was stopped, the ball hadn't moved in quite some time. I suppose the snapper adjusted the ball (like ALL snappers do ALL the time) a little when he approached the line. But ultimately it appeared to me that the ball wound up in the exact place it started. I dunno, it just felt like a weird flex for the officials on this one, like they were looking for this very thing and couldn't wait to call it. And curiously on the subsequent kick, Elliott wound up an extra yard back. It went from 52 to 58. Six yard difference rather than five.

• Sydney Brown was flagged for a hold on a punt. I didn't see it. (Not saying it didn't happen.)

• Kelee Ringo made a secure solo tackle on a kickoff.

• Jahan Dotson fielded a punt at his own five yard line, which may infuriate some people. But I had no real issue with it. The punt was such a massive bomb that he had plenty of room to make a play. He wound up getting the ball out to the sixteen yard line. Granted, he could have had it at the twenty if he had allowed it to bound in to the endzone. But there was no guarantee that it would do just that. It could as easily bounced sideways and settled at the five yard line. So I'm okay with this.

• A.J. Brown fielded an easy, comfortable hop (thank goodness for that!) on the Chiefs late onside kick. Good play.

• The Rams punter is another good one so we may have some difficulties in the return game this coming week. It happens that way sometimes.

EDITED this post to reflect a very, very slight mathematical correction.

I'll see if I can get some screenshots, but it looks like the change in LS is helping Elliott more consistently get through his mechanics. Last year, for want of a better word, the finishing point of his foot was a bit all over the place week on week - bit like a golfer whose swing needs work and they intermittently hook and pull the ball - and the end results reflected it. Whether its the timing on snap, consistent snap location or both, he looks to be a lot more smoother out there now. Mann certainly doesn't seem to be working as hard as did last year with some errant snaps.

There will be misses, but it doesn't feel so "what are we going to get today".

Some film analysis on kickoffs. Thoughts?