JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Should the NFL consider making field goals of 60 or more yards worth four points?
While there's currently no momentum or proposal by the NFL competition committee, some current players and Pro Football Hall of Famers are at least intrigued (with mixed opinions) by the idea of awarding an additional point for converting on a distance that isn't all that rare anymore. Two seasons ago, the NFL revamped its kickoff rules in hopes of reducing injuries and encouraging more returns when it implemented a dynamic kickoff structure that had been used in the XFL, a spring football league now known as the UFL.
The changes worked. The return rate in the NFL increased from 21.8% in 2023 to 32.8% in 2024.
Further tweaks to league rules in 2025 resulted in the rate jumping to 74.5% in 2025. This year, the UFL implemented the four-point field goal and saw an uptick in 60-yard field goals.
During the UFL's 2025 season, no 60-yard field goals were made. But in 2026, the league went 8-for-14 (57.1%) on such kicks, including going 4-for-4 in the playoffs.
Last season in the NFL, kickers attempted a record 22 field goals of 60 or more yards and made 12 (55%). That's nearly as many successful field goals from 60-plus yards last season were nearly as many as kickers made in the previous three seasons (14).
"Heck yeah, man. Let's go," Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen said in support of a four-point field goal.
"Up the ante a little bit." It makes sense Coen likes the idea because Jacksonville's kicker, Cam Little , set the NFL record with a 68-yarder against the Las Vegas Raiders last season and netted a 67-yarder against the Tennessee Titans , which holds the mark for the longest outdoor field goal in NFL history. Little also had a 70-yard field goal against the Pittsburgh Steelers last preseason that didn't count in the record books.
But what do some of the league's kickers think? "It'd be nice," Detroit Lions kicker Jake Bates said.
"I know it's cool for the UFL guys to get that because it makes it worth sending them out there for, and I think a lot of guys showed they can make it so it's cool to watch." Washington Commanders kicker Jake Moody said the rule change seems like a natural evolution the same way the NBA adopted the 3-point shot 12 years after the ABA introduced it in its inaugural season in 1967. "I think that'd be kind of cool," Moody said.
"Why not? It's like basketball, they got the 3-pointer ...
"I feel like there'd be a lot more attempts for sure. So you probably practice your longer range, 60-plus kicks a lot more." Dallas Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey , who has made an NFL-record six field goals of 60 or more yards in his first three seasons, isn't quite sure how he feels about a four-point move, mainly because of how it could impact strategy.
"I think it's a little weird," he said. "Kind of incentivizes you to stall the drive in a certain spot.
It makes you really, really question your playcalling around that 50-yard line area. It's interesting for kickers that have the leg to get it there, maybe [there's] a little bit more value there.
But kind of perverses the incentives of football where the goal is to get it as close to the other person's half as possible. "So, I'm conflicted on it.
I like it for the kickers. I think it's a nightmare for the playcallers." Little isn't so sure, either.
"It adds an element to the game that if you have a bigger leg, it helps you," he said. "But I don't know.
There's been so many rule changes between the kickoff. I just think if we could keep some tradition to the game, I think that's what makes the NFL really cool because we've kept a lot of the rules." The UFL's long-range field goal experiment wasn't the first time field goals have been worth more than three points.
According to the Pro Football Hall of Fame , representatives from colleges including Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia met in Springfield, Massachusetts, in November 1876 to establish the rules of American football, initially awarding five points for a field goal. That rule was changed to four points in 1904 and then to the three we know now in 1909.
Speaking of history, kickers have become much more accurate over the past 40-plus years. Per ESPN Research, the combined field goal percentage has steadily risen in each of the past four decades, from 69.7% in the 1980s to 83.9% in the 2010s.
From 2020-2025, kickers have made 85% of their field goal attempts. The increase in success from lo