Year in review: David Akers
Time to kick off our Year in Review series. We'll take a look at every player on the Eagles' roster and evaluate how each performed in 2009. We'll go (mostly) in alphabetical order, but I need more time checking my in-season notes on Victor Abiamiri, so we start with David Akers.
Year in review: David Akers
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
David Akers had an excellent year in 2009. (David Maialetti/Staff Photographer)
We'll take a look at every player on the Eagles' roster and evaluate how each performed in 2009.
We'll go (mostly) in alphabetical order, but I need more time checking my in-season notes on Victor Abiamiri, so we start with David Akers.
The veteran kicker hit 86.5 percent of his field-goal attempts last season, the third-best mark of his career and the best since 2002. It was the ninth-best overall percentage among kickers with at least 15 attempts.
Akers led all kickers with 32 makes, but also had the most tries (37).
He was money from 39 yards and under, hitting 20 of 21 attempts.
From 40-49, Akers made 11 of 13 kicks (84.6 percent). The two misses? Both against the Raiders, in a game where he attempted five field goals. In his previous 10 seasons, Akers hit 69.2 percent from that range.
From 40 or longer, he was 12-for-16 (75 percent). Only four kickers (who attempted at least 10 from that distance) had a better percentage. In his previous 10 seasons, Akers hit 64.9 percent from 40 or longer.
In terms of "game on the line" kicks, Akers hit winners against the Redskins and Broncos in the second half of the season.
The numbers don't lie. Even by his own standards, Akers was well above average in 2009. And keep in mind, this is a guy who was named to the league's All-Decade team.
At 35, he showed no signs of slowing down and will return to a field-goal unit that was ranked best in the league by Rick Gosselin of The Dallas Morning News.
Akers is under contract for 2010, but then would be eligible for free agency.
David Akers: Stats
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Comments (28)
saunders and gfunk: learn football morons, most kickers out score the qbs.... idiots..— bleed green forever- Very likeable guy. It'd be good to see him have a year where he makes two clutch kicks in the playoffs and then one to win the SB.— tacklinjoe
This guy has had a nice career with the Eagles, has won a lot of games for them, and has never done anything even slightly negative that I know about. Ya gotta like David Akers.- Bleed Green Forever: You beat me to it. The joke is on them because it is awesome that McNabb has more points than Akers (who is a great kicker) when the should is otherwise... Morons...— Bigbadrookie
- akers is the man, one of the few eagles that show some consistancy year in and out— legionofdoomphilly
- Eagles signing Akers after the Redskins cut him just evens out the whole Redskins signing of Mark Moseley back in the early 70's when the Eagles cut him. Anyone know who the kicker was that the Eagles went with after cutting Moseley??— timcog08
- I don't know why are these writters wasting so much time with this non-sense. There are two defensive players outtere that the Eagles should be pursuing and these gumbos are not writing anything about. Julious Pepper and Antonio Pierce will be signed by Patriots and other top teams and we'll always be second/third best. That's the Eagles story.— CapitanesFua
marley66? How so? It was just a fact regarding Akers. I think the epic fail was your point.
Bigbadrookie & Bleed Green Forever, lighten up. You don't compare TD's to extra point/FG's stats. Thus, the irony of Akers being almost as good with his foot as McDirt is with his arm.— Richard Saunders- No Richard there is no irony only the impressive stat that McNabb has put well over 300 points more than Akers. BTW: "McDirt" LOL that's funny, you see in case the readers missed it you replaced "nabb" with "dirt" but kept the "Mc"! Very clever did you think of that yourself? I mean you must be the first to ever do something like that. You should copyright it, you really should because it is so funny! Some might think only tools play stupid name games like that but not me, no sir I think you are a literary and football genius. You don't sound like a hating unoriginal tool at all. Great stuff! LOL
- marley66 sorry you don't have the intelligence to understand the sport. But the AP does, they named the Athlete of The Year a NASCAR driver.
- Actually, Suanders is kind of right. The reason kickers almost always out score QB's is because kickers get credit for every point scored as opposed to QB's who only get credit for actually carrying the ball over the end zone. So finding the humor in compairing McNabb's passing touchdowns vs. Akers points with his "foot" is a stretch, but still ironic.— MaddenFL
- Don't wait for his contract to expire. Extend his stay in Philly now! He seems to get better as he gets older.— Vino
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About this blog
Sheil Kapadia is in his fifth season writing about the Eagles and the NFL for philly.com. His earliest
memories as a sports fan include several trips to Veterans Stadium with
his Dad. He's not a beat writer or an Insider, but is here to
discuss the NFL 365 days a year. E-mail him at skapadia@philly.com or
by clicking here
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