It's fair to say that we're living in a Golden Age of Kickers right now in the NFL. Not only are kickers extending the boundaries of what we've come to accept as 'field goal range,' with 60-yarders becoming nearly as common as 50-yarders were only two decades ago, but in the last five seasons alone, we've seen five of the top six seasons in terms of most field goals made in a single season.
Sure, a 17-game schedule, introduced in the 2021 season, has opened the door for such records to be threatened with greater regularity, but the regularity with which kickers have gotten within shouting distance of the single season records in the kicking game exceeds that with nearly any other statistical category.
On Sunday afternoon, Houston Texans kicker Ka'imi Fairbairn tied David Akers' record, set in 2011, with 44 made field goals on the season, thanks to a 6-for-6 performance that will almost certainly earn him his fifth Special Teams Player of the Week distinction since arriving in the NFL with the Texans back in 2017. And for what it's worth, before anyone points to the 17-game schedule and tries to cast doubt on the legitimacy of this record-tying effort, Fairbairn played in only 15 games this season, so please go ahead and shelf that argument.
What's funny about this whole situation is that if Fairbairn wasn't told about the record-tying effort he submitted this season after the game, he may not have even noticed it.
“I don’t really look at stats, honestly,” Fairbairn said following the 38-30 win over the Indianapolis Colts. “I just take it game by game, one at a time. You guys just told me."
It would be easy to say that Fairbairn couldn't have possibly been oblivious to the fact that he tied a 14-year-old NFL record, but then again, if a player at any position would do everything he could to isolate himself from the outside noise, it would be a kicker.
“Shoutout to ‘Imi. We can’t be where we are right now without ‘Imi and what he’s been capable of doing. T. A lot of times, I tell our guys, ‘You take for granted when you have such a great kicker who is able to secure you points, even if things don’t go your way in the red zone,'" DeMeco Ryans said after the game. “You want to score touchdowns every single drive, but it doesn’t happen. You get in range, and you got a sure-footed kicker who can make those points. We are so thankful for ‘Imi and how he consistently has performed throughout this entire year.”
There may not be a more sure-footed kicker in the world right now than the 31-year-old Hawaiian who just kicked his way into the NFL record book. Not only did Fairbairn hit on 44 of his 48 field goal attempts this season, he also was one of just 10 kickers this season who didn't miss on a single extra point attempt.
Add all of 28 of Fairbairn's makes on PAT's to his 44-of-48 field goals, and that's a 94.7% success rate in the kicking game. That's superior to NFC Pro Bowl selection Brandon Aubrey, the Dallas Cowboys kicker who is widely regarded as the best in the world at his position.
In reality, that distinction may belong to Ka'imi Fairbairn. At least that's the way Xavier Hutchinson sees it.
“Best kicker in the league,” Hutchinson said. “Ice in his veins.”