Fromal's Kicking Notebook: Trey Smack, Harrison Mevis struggle, Spencer Shrader's remarkable efforts and more

To this point in the fledgling 2026 NFL season, I've had the distinct pleasure of focusing on the plentiful success stories involving kickers. Week 5 forced that optimism to morph into pessimism as a number of promising kickers experienced significant struggles.

Now-former Rams kicker Harrison Mevis doesn't look like he has a shred of confidence left when he swings his shoulders from side to side lining up for an attempt. Trey Smack remembered that he is, in fact, a rookie at a position fraught with volatility. Wil Lutz, though we're not diving deep on this particular topic in this week's edition, made it even harder for the Broncos to trust him outside chip-shot range.

That's not to say kickers universally struggled in Week 5. I'll dive deep on Spencer Shrader's remarkable efforts, update you on Will Reichard's dual pursuit of history and cover a Kick of the Week that brought me immense personal pleasure. (I'm lucky I didn't sprain my shoulder given the intensity of the fist pump that would've made Tiger Woods proud.)

But struggles are the theme of the week. They have to be.

The NFL kicking numbers that mattered in Week 5

Week 5 was...rough. Though Chase McLaughlin and Brandon Aubrey got the league off to a good start on Thursday Night Football, kickers collectively went 67-of-74 on PATs (90.5 percent) and 52-of-64 on field-goal attempts (81.3 percent). The average kick distance of 42.19 yards was a bit higher than we've seen in the season's earlier weeks, but that's not enough of a jump to justify the woeful accuracy that plagued a large swath of the league's specialists as the league combined to record negative KVA for the first time in 2026.

My proprietary kick value added (KVA) metric, which looks not just at a kicker's makes and misses but also at the distances from which they kicked and the overall league's level of success from each area during the season in question, helps us make sense of all the 2026 numbers. But I'm changing up the format this week. Dynamic kickoffs are so vital in today's NFL that we must collectively continue to expand the way we analyze the position. I've been rolling out different non-KVA metrics throughout the last few weeks of these notebooks, and now they're all coming together. First, a quick glossary:

-Kick value added (KVA): How many more points a kicker has produced than a league-average kicker would've with the same attempts from the same distances.
-Accuracy quotient (AQ): A 0-100 metric based on kick charting that looks at the estimated horizontal proximity to the center of the uprights on each field-goal attempt, scaled to account for the increased difficulty of longer kicks.
-Kickoff points gained (KPG): Based on the expected points from each starting position on the field, the number of points a kicker has gained/lost on their kickoffs relative to league-average starting field position. Penalties for long returns are capped because the kicker is not solely at fault for coverage breakdowns.
-Kicker points over average (KPOA): The sum of KVA and KPG, both of which exist on a points gained/lost scale, KPOA is the ultimate all-encompassing metric for kicker value.

Now, we'll (dynamically) kick off with the top performers from Week 5:

More to come on Will Reichard and Spencer Shrader as the notebook progresses, but I'd be remiss to not give Jason Myers a shoutout for continuing to perform at a high level. I was skeptical of how he'd perform in 2026 given his putrid preseason at 35 years old, but he's having yet another strong season despite some continued struggles in the kickoff game.

Next, the worst performers of the week:

That -6.32 KPOA for Trey Smack isn't just bad; it's downright disastrous and will receive more virtual ink shortly. It supplanted Nick Folk's -3.60 in Week 1 as the worst single-game showing of the year. But first, we get to move onto the season-long leaderboards, beginning with the top of the 2026 pack:

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Mevis has fallen to the bottom of the season-long pile, though Smack's woeful week and Patterson's continued sub-mediocrity have made them serious challengers:

Biggest NFL kicker takeaways from Week 5

As always, the raw numbers pale in importance to the kicks themselves. So let's dive into the storylines and observations.

Spencer Shrader keeps validating the Colts' decision

Remember when the Colts had Blake Grupe and Spencer Shrader battling it out for the kicking gig this offseason? How Grupe had the clear leg up based on practice-field workouts but ultimately ceded the job to Shrader because of the disparity in their preseason performances? That Shrader needed to prove himself healthy after a torn ACL and MCL cut short his promising 2025 campaign?

That feels like ancient history. Five weeks into the 2026 season, Shrader has outperformed every single one of his positional counterparts on point-scoring kicks. (Maybe there's something to be said for bringing in offseason competition and forcing kickers to take high-leverage kicks before the games actually start counting...)

Following a dominant showing against the Steelers in which he connected from 22, 28, 40, 56 and 57 yards — the two longest of which both came in the opening minutes of the contest — Shrader is now the league's leader in KVA. But he looks even better when you dive further below the surface on his league-high 16 field-goal attempts.

Per my kick-charting efforts, Shrader grades out with the league's No. 4 accuracy quotient (92.9 AQ), trailing only Ryan Fitzgerald (93.5 AQ on nine attempts), Jake Bates (94 AQ on eight attempts) and Andre Szmyt (94 AQ on 10 attempts). He's striping the ball down the center on virtually every field-goal try, and those kicks are coming, on average, quite far from the goalposts. Take a gander at how his AQ and average attempt distance stack up against the entire kicking landscape:

Only Jake Elliott (45.2 yards), Cam Little (46.0 yards) and Tyler Loop (46.4 yards) have a longer average attempt than Shrader (45.1 yards), and the Colts specialist has at least five more attempts than each of them. He's shouldered (hipped?) a high-volume workload for Indianapolis and has showed just how much life is in that right leg of his, pumping long kick after long kick through the center of the uprights.

As if that's not already enough working in his favor, Shrader hasn't let the magnitude of the moment affect him either. He's taken a league-high four pressure field-goal attempts, defined as kicks that would change the score state (tying the game, taking the lead, moving the margin between one and two scores, or forcing a different type of score to change the game state) in the fourth quarter or overtime:

-A 38-yard make while down three with 3:11 left in overtime against the Chiefs on Sept. 20
-A 37-yard make while up six with 12:43 left against the Texans on Sept. 27
-A 53-yard make while down one with 16 seconds left against the Texans on Sept. 27
-A 28-yard make while down five with 11:42 left against the Steelers on Oct. 11

His AQ on that quartet of conversions stands at an impressive 91, and the least accurate of the bunch happened to be the one he needed to make least (going from up six to up nine against Houston, which graded out at an 82 AQ).

Shrader is passing every test with flying colors. He's succeeded at volume, with underlying accuracy that supports the results regardless of leverage, and with a degree of difficulty higher than the slate faced by nearly any other kicker.

Back in August, Harrison Butker blamed working on his technique on dynamic kickoffs for the struggles he'd experienced kicking field goals. Perhaps there's some merit to the theory. Shrader, ostensibly to preserve his leg for point-producing kicks, has only kicked off twice this year, instead ceding opportunities to Rigoberto Sanchez (who has been perfectly average at the task). If he keeps bombing away like this, perhaps more teams will connect those dots and experiment with the punter-as-kickoff-specialist approach.

Turns out Trey Smack really is a rookie kicker

Oof.

Unless you root for one of his NFC North rivals, this is not what you want to see from Trey Smack. The Packers rookie misfired not once, not twice, but three times to become one of the few negative performers in Green Bay's dominant win over Chicago. He yanked an extra point left early in the third quarter, pulled a 43-yard attempt left of the uprights while up 31-7 in the fourth and then pushed a 47-yarder outside right a few minutes later. The miss pattern was inconsistent (even his successful 35-yarder came closer to the right upright than he'd have liked), and the errors were never created by a dangerous rush or bad snap sequence.

Heading into Week 5, Smack had been enjoying a solid first campaign. He'd missed just twice (one blocked field goal, one PAT) while showing great accuracy on a decently difficult set of kicks. But this stretch tanked his season-long numbers.

Smack, Green Bay fans should know, is not Brandon McManus at the end of his tenure. He's a 23-year-old rookie playing a position bubbling over with inconsistency. Below, you can see the distribution of KVAs by experience level throughout NFL history. You'll notice that while rookies do have top-end upside, they have the lowest percentage of great seasons and — by far — the highest percentage of rough years:

He's not the only rookie struggling, either. Drew Stevens missed his third PAT of the season Sunday (to go with two missed field goals). Dominic Zvada also went from looking like a revelation to missing three kicks in Week 5, though all were rainy three-point misfires from distance. He also continued to excel in the kickoff game, unlike Smack, who ceded a 61-yard return to Zavion Thomas on a cleanly fielded kick directly at the eight and only gave the Packers defense above-average starting field position twice in five tries.

Smack, especially given his preseason excellence, not to mention the draft capital used on him, deserves a long runway and continued faith from the fanbase. That's just a tougher ask because of the franchise's scar tissue at the position in recent years.

Now cut, 2026 Harrison Mevis looked entirely different than 2025 Harrison Mevis

Harrison Mevis still had the same frame and wore the same jersey number for the Rams (emphasis on the past tense), but he looked like a completely different kicker than he did during his rookie year in 2025. Last season, he kicked the ball with unrelenting confidence and submitted some of the NFL's most pristine accuracy metrics, admittedly on a smaller sample and on a slate of kicks that never truly tested the upper bounds of the range he'd shown at Missouri and in the UFL. But this year, he looked increasingly rattled and displayed a consistent miss pattern.

In the dramatic overtime battle with the Bills on Monday Night Football, Mevis added two more misses to his season tally, leaving Rams fans to experience deja vu all over again. The Thiccer Kicker's first unsuccessful kick of the season came against the Giants on Sept. 21 when he couldn't keep a right-hash 43-yarder from drifting outside left. Then, against the Eagles in Week 4, he lined up a 48-yard attempt from the right hash and hooked it outside left, exacerbated by a right-to-left crosswind.

Monday saw him hook a 50-yarder outside left from the right hash in the first quarter. He lined up for an overtime game-winner from 48 yards, also on the right hash, but Greg Rousseau got his hand on the ball shortly after it left Mevis' foot. Based on the early trajectory, the block wasn't necessary because the ball was headed too far left, too quickly.

That's a pretty stark difference. Last year, Mevis thrived from the right hash. This season, his confidence looked to have completely evaporated, and the Rams seemed awfully hesitant to trust him on even a 48-yard attempt.

But it's not just the right hash. His AQ remained at a high level regardless of distance during his rookie year and fell off a cliff in the encore. That's true from just about every distance, including the plummet happening around 45 yards, as you can see below:

If you're looking for a single image that captures what happens when a kicker fails the test of range expansion, that would be it.

This is where a mea culpa is necessary. I was incredibly high on Mevis' potential for 2026, thinking his accuracy would carry over into a strong sophomore season that featured the Rams trusting him from closer to midfield. He sat at No. 9 in my personal rankings coming out of the preseason, which looks downright foolish in retrospect. especially since he's compiled the third-worst kickoff points gained (KPG) in the NFL this season. I didn't even wait for Tuesday to begin before dropping him from multiple fantasy teams.

Sean McVay was notably frustrated with his squad's special teams performance after the primetime loss, and it took less than 24 hours for the Rams to cut Mevis and sign Blake Grupe off the Jets' practice squad, per NFL Network's Mike Garafolo.

Mevis has the upside necessary to surface somewhere else down the road, but this was the right decision. The fall from grace was as legitimate as it was quick.

More kicker takeaways from Week 5

The Jaguars showed how much long-snappers matter: Jaguars fans like yours truly will likely be thrilled to hear the team has already flown out a real long-snapper for the second week in London: Jacob Bobenmoyer, previously of the Las Vegas Raiders (2023-25). The absence of Ross Matiscik loomed large during their flag-filled slopfest win over the injury-riddled Eagles. Defensive tackle DaVon Hamilton, who hadn't played the position since high school, did an admirable job filling in on short notice. However, his understandably erratic snaps created highlight-reel plays (Logan Cooke fielding a high ball and lifting his toes out of Cam Little's kicking path), punts that would otherwise have been Little attempts and bad misses (another high snap leading directly to a yanked-left PAT).

Checking in on Will Reichard's pursuit of history: The Vikings kicker continues to flat-out dominate. He added makes from 40, 54 and 56 (straight as an arrow for a 100 AQ) against the Saints in Week 5 and trails only Shrader in KVA. That, paired with his excellence in the kickoff game, makes him the early leader in the all-encompassing KPOA standings. Last week, I covered the remarkable percentage of Vikings points for which he's responsible, and he's still in record territory. After accounting for 11 of 23, he's down to 48.6 percent, which is still well clear of 2007 Rob Bironas (44.2 percent). Oh, and he's also up to 33 straight makes, which leaves him six behind Gary Anderson's franchise record.

Jake Elliott is bouncing back for the Eagles: Overshadowed by Cam Little's Kick of the Week, Jake Elliott made a should've-been-game-winning 48-yarder with a confident stroke and just eight seconds remaining in the proceedings. It's not his fault the Eagles completely botched the time-management situation and, in all likelihood, renewed calls for the hiring of a Madden-trained consultant. I was skeptical about him recovering from his multi-year slide, but the early sample, which is admittedly small, has looked good and yielded 3.85 KVA.

Matt Gay has the most misleading 2026 in the NFL: On the surface level, Matt Gay has made 11 of 12 field-goal attempts and all 11 of his point-after tries. But the lone miss, which came in Week 5 and will also be covered shortly, started showing the cracks in the facade. The Raiders kicker has the worst accuracy numbers on his makes this season (see: below, at the lowest point), suggesting that the bottom could fall out in the near future.

NFL doink counter after Week 5

1. Eddy Pineiro (2)
The 49ers kicker remains the only specialist to record a pair of doinks this season. His most recent came on a PAT gone wrong in Week 3.

2(tie). Cameron Dicker, Wil Lutz, Chad Ryland, Ryan Fitzgerald, Riley Patterson, Andre Szmyt, Matt Gay (1 apiece)
A three-for-one special of new additions! Riley Patterson doinked a PAT for the Dolphins, line-driving the ball from the left hash into the left upright and producing a massive rattle on the broadcast. If you're going to doink a kick, at least earn the sonic style points. Andre Szmyt produced the kind of doinked PAT that just kept drifting further and further and into the right upright. Matt Gay's misfire from 49 yards followed the same flight pattern as his successful 46-yarder. The doink hooked directly into the left upright and bounced back to the other side of the field; the make snuck just inside the yellow pole. Both of Gay's kicks showcased the questionable accuracy on the season referenced above.

NFL Kick of the Week: Cam Little completes the '8 Seconds in London' comeback

Call it the "Eight Seconds in London" kick. Refer to it as the "Kick That Should Never Have Existed." Think of it as the moment that forever endeared London fans to the showmanship of Cam Little, who knew it was good off the foot and didn't even bother to watch the ball cross the threshold before sprinting to the other end of the field, striking a pose and winding up atop the shoulder pads of his jubilant Jaguars teammates.

The Eagles 100 percent should've avoided this situation — the byproduct of the most damaging mistake in a game that featured countless head-scratching moments and so much laundry on the field that you'd have thought they were playing in a laundromat. But that mistake wasn't booting the ball into the end zone for a touchback, which would've given the Jaguars a chance to complete a quick pass and give the most dangerous long-range kicker in the NFL an opportunity. Kicking the ball into play is the right call in that situation because of the clock bleed; you have to have confidence that your coverage team can avoid giving up the huge play. The numbers bear that out, too. Through Week 5, only 15 of the 640 kickoffs fielded by a returner (2.3 percent!) have crossed midfield.

The mistake actually came a play earlier when they failed to run the clock down and use their final timeout before Elliott's 48-yarder. Instead of celebrating a walk-off W, the Eagles had to kick to Ameer Abdullah, who nearly housed the return and hit the ground just before the clock expired to leave just enough time for a smooth 57-yarder from the distance record-holder. Backup long-snapper DaVon Hamilton put another snap far too high, but Logan Cooke rescued it and allowed Little to come up big.

The moment was improbable. The result wasn't.

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