December 21, 2025
Amber Searls/Imagn Images
Jake Elliott had a brutal night during the Eagles' 29-18 win over the Commanders on Saturday.
There were two instances during Saturday's Eagles win over the Commanders that worked out for the Birds in the end, but at the same time, looked brutal for Jake Elliott.
They were down three in the third quarter and facing a 4th and 7 from the Washington 38. The offense stayed out to go for it, the play failed, but an illegal contact call on the Commanders gave them an automatic first down and a new path toward a Dallas Goedert touchdown pass for the lead soon after.
Then late in the fourth, Tank Bigsby barreled forward 22 yards for another touchdown that let the Eagles completely pull away, and to ensure that the Commanders were fully buried, they took and succeeded in the two-point conversion, which drew exception from the Washington players, then punches and shoving, then ejections.
In both scenarios, directly or not, the Eagles made a choice to keep Elliott from kicking the football.
The Eagles won, 29-18, and officially punched their ticket to the playoffs with a second straight NFC East title. But Elliott had a bad night, which piled on to a concerningly bad season.
He missed three field goals on Saturday, though two officially on the stat sheet because a defensive offside penalty on Washington wiped one of them away. Granted, that might've been even worse because that flag gave Elliott a do-over and he still missed it anyway.
He pulled all of those kicks left. The first from 43 yards away, and the latter two from 57 and then 52 after the penalty in between gave him a five-yard buffer.
Then, when his next possible turn came on that 4th and 7, head coach Nick Sirianni passed on him to try and tie it, 10-10, and instead rolled the dice with the offense.
It worked out in the end, maybe luckily so because of that ensuing Commanders penalty that saved the possession, but it was a clear show, too, that there was no confidence in Elliott at that point to make that kick.
The Eagles' veteran kicker is struggling, to a career-worst degree. And maybe it was happening quietly before, but heading toward the playoffs, when a clutch kick can be the difference between a championship run or a team's season ending, definitely not now.
"I have the utmost confidence in Jake," Sirianni said postgame. "I think, like any team, you have ups and downs. That's just not offense, defense, that's special teams, and that's your kicker, too. I have a ton of confidence in him that he'll respond, and that he'll rebound from this because he's mentally tough and a great kicker."
But that's a diplomatic answer when it comes to a position that good teams depend on as an automatic source of points. For the Eagles, it isn't now, and all while a new generation of kickers across the league are booming 60-yarders like it's nothing.
#Eagles K Jake Elliott on whether his recent struggles are mental: “No, honestly, not at all. That’s kind of what’s frustrating about is I don’t feel that way at all. I kind of wish it was. Easier to fix.” Elliott asked if he worries about the team exploring other options, says… pic.twitter.com/dNgUj5auRy
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) December 21, 2025
Elliott's field-goal percentage after Saturday is at a career low of 70.8. He's missed five kicks (or six if you want to count the negated one from the Washington flag on Saturday) in the past five games, and has been all over the place from long distance.
He's 6-for-9 on the season on field-goal attempts from 40-49 yards out, and 4-8 on attempts from 50-plus yards away.
The concern around him traces back to last season, too, when he was 1-for-7 on kicks from 50-plus yards and had an also low 77.8 field goal percentage, but a good playoff run and, understandably, winning the Super Bowl, allowed that worry to fall by the wayside for an offseason and the better part of this season.
But Elliott's struggles, at a crucial point in the year, can't be ignored now – nor can the developing thought now that maybe the Eagles might consider bringing in another kicker late.
"I understand," Elliott told the media about that possibility, via the NFL Network's Mike Garafolo. "It's a production-based business. You see it all the time.
"That's out of my hands. That's out of my control. All I can do is put my head down and keep pushing."
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