How Akers stacks up
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How Akers stacks up
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
By now, you've probably heard that the Eagles have placed the transition tag on David Akers today.
Since I've received quite a few questions on Twitter about what that means, here goes:
* The Eagles agree to pay Akers the average salary of the top 10 punters and kickers for one season.
* Other teams can still try to sign Akers, but the Eagles have the right to match any offer.
* If they don't match an offer, and he signs elsewhere, the Eagles receive no compensation in the form of draft picks.
The franchise tag is different because it pays the average salary of the top five players. There are two types of franchise tags: exclusive and non-exclusive. With exclusive franchise tags, the player cannot sign with any other teams.
With non-exclusive franchise tags, the player can sign with another team, but the original team has a chance to match the offer. If it chooses not to, and the player signs with the other team, the original team gets two first-round draft picks.
How many franchise and transition tags does each team get? Well, that depends on the terms of the new CBA. In other words, it's possible we will have to revisit where the Eagles stand with Vick and Akers down the road, depending on the new guidelines that are put into place.
Another important aspect to consider is that the teams can still work on long-term deals with players after tagging them.
Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's move on to Akers and take a look at how he stacks up against his peers.
At the age of 36, and in his 11th full season as the Eagles' kicker, Akers hit 84.2 percent of his attempts. That number ranked 11th in the NFL and was the fifth-best of his career.,
Keeping in mind that some kickers have more attempts from longer distances than others, Football Outsiders had the Eagles' kicking game (field goals and extra points) ranked 10th. According to their metrics, the Birds were better than they've been at any time since 2004.
Here's a chart of Akers' field-goal percentages on attempts of 40 yards or more:
| Year |
Pct. on 40+ attempts |
| 2000 |
72.7% |
| 2001 |
69.2% |
| 2002 |
77.8% |
| 2003 |
61.5% |
| 2004 |
81.0% |
| 2005 |
54.5% |
| 2006 |
75.0% |
| 2007 |
20.0% |
| 2008 |
66.7% |
| 2009 |
75.0% |
| 2010 |
71.4% |
| Overall |
67.3% |
As you can see, Akers has been better than his career average the past two seasons on kicks of 40 yards or more. After a down period from 2005-2007 where he made just 14 of 29 attempts (48.3 percent), he's rebounded nicely.
The other aspect to look at is kickoffs. And in his 11th season as the Eagles' full-time kicker, Akers kicked more touchbacks than ever before. He had touchbacks on 24 percent of his kickoffs, eighth-best in the NFL.
Here's a chart of Akers' touchback percentages over the course of his career:
| Year |
Pct. of touchbacks |
| 2000 |
5.0% |
| 2001 |
8.9% |
| 2002 |
11.2% |
| 2003 |
9.6% |
| 2004 |
14.0% |
| 2005 |
8.6% |
| 2006 |
13.3% |
| 2007 |
7.7% |
| 2008 |
19.1% |
| 2009 |
11.7% |
| 2010 |
24.0% |
| Overall |
12.6% |
According to Football Outsiders, the Eagles' kickoff units ranked seventh in the NFL.
And finally, we have to look at Akers' playoff performance. You obviously know that Akers missed two field goals in the Eagles' loss to the eventual Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers. You probably also know that he was dealing with a family crisis at the time (as detailed in this column by Ashley Fox).
But overall, Akers' playoff numbers are almost identical to his regular-season numbers. In the regular season, he's hit on 81.9 percent of his field-goal attempts. In the playoffs, he's 31 for 38 (81.6 percent). Prior to the Packers' game, he had hit 18 of his previous 19 attempts in the postseason.
The bottom line is, statistically, he's probably not one of the best kickers in the NFL, but he's very good and is not showing signs of slowing down.
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Hmm...Akers was the starting kicker for the NFC in the last two Pro Bowls, but he's not one of the best kickers in the game?— slovak34- the column reads "statistically, he's probably not one of the best kickers in the NFL". key word "statistically"...he's obviously a top 10 kicker or the Eagles wouldn't of tagged him.
— bboybeballin - Being a Pro Bowl starter does not necessarily mean that a player is tops at his position. Politics and popularity are also factors. Thanks for the post Sheil.— Peter527
- huh? this is an easy one to disagree with...politics and popularity aside, being a Pro Bowl starter 2 years in a row absolutely means a K is one of the tops at his position. — bboybeballin
- Being a Pro Bowl starter does not necessarily mean that a player is tops at his position. Politics and popularity are also factors. Thanks for the post Sheil.— Peter527
- Typical Eagles treatment of a veteran player; Akers turns doen their below market offer (which they knew he would) so to punish him they put this non-exclusive tag on him. This tag does one thing; it ruins a player's marketability.
You don't want the guy, you humiliated the guy when his daughter way laying in a hospital bed; just let him be a free agent! Why punish another veteran who was loyal to your organization for so many years!
I hope other players notice how vengeful this organization is; nobody should ever sign here if they take notice.
Just like they treated Dawkins; damn shame!— JBinPA 
i think if akers makes those playoff kicks, this isn't an issue. still the eagles are incredibly good at spotting the expiration date of players old and new. maybe 2 guys they cut loose went anywhere to do anything. and no Bdawk doesn't really count. he had one more really good season with denver. again, they didn't treat bdawk bad. get your facts straight, denver paid him an incredible amount to go there. probably nobody else would have paid that much either. so the eagles treated him well, and denver went just silly and paid a ton. jayson werth gives that deal a thumbs up. akers' confidence seemed to disappear when detmer was cut loose. you can check the tapes, with detmer it was always automatic. everyone else? a bit shaky. but hey, akers will be an eagles hall of famer, it's hard to argue him not going in. it'll be close, but i think he has to get the nod. he's a household name kicker out of maybe 3 others.— Evilvet
I like Dawkins as much as the next guy but he had only half of a really good season in Denver. Since the first eight games of the 2009 season . . . not so much. Akers is guaranteed to be at least the 5th highest paid kicker in the league. Not so bad. It seemed to me the transition tag was a positive for him. He can sign elsewhere and the Eagles can match it or let him go - no draft picks lost. I assume he won't sign elsewhere for less than the average of the top 10 kickers as he is guaranteed with the tag. When is the last time a team tagged a player and cut him in the same year? I would think Akers gave a little sigh of relief today with the tag providing him some assurance of a really nice paycheck next year.- Or maybe I'm off base on Akers. Unless he was figuring on getting top pay from the Eagles, I don't know enough, I guess, to see the down side of this tag.
- In other words -- unless the CBA changes, Akers will earn in 2011 about what his 2010 performance indicates. He's a top-ten kicker and will make what top-ten kickers average. The Eagles have neither mistreated nor overpaid him.— paolibulldog
- His kickoffs were very encouraging this year. Showing no signs of losing leg strength.— armchairGM
- He missed two kicks in the playoff game that would have given up the victory. he gets ONE more chance. the eagles do not have any other options unless they want to look at retired people or invest in a draft pick. we found akers through free agency and 11 years later hes still our guy. but those packers misses still hurt— DonovanMcNabb
- If you were in a life or death situation and you had to have your kicker make a 50 yard field goal or you would be summarily shot, would you choose Akers to attempt that kick? I didn't think so.
— SteveS11 - ummm, ok. let us know your K when someone wants to summarily shoot you...I myself would only trust god to kick that 50 FG. — bboybeballin
- Akers is an all pro at missing kicks in games we get elimanted 2008 nfc championship now this last wildcard game his stats are inflated because the eagles are always in top 10 in scoring. When was the last gamewinner he has kicked? would love to see his fg accuracy in games we lost and how many games we would have won if he did kick like a pro bowler— dafence
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