Player
Chase McLaughlin
K · Buccaneers
McLaughlin's journeyman years (SF/LAC/IND/JAX/CLE) kept him from developing consistent mechanics with one coaching staff. The Tampa stability gave him a permanent home and unlocked three of the most accurate seasons of his career — showing that for kickers, organizational fit matters as much as leg talent.
5 different teams in his first 3 NFL seasons. Then he found Tampa — and hit 90%+ in 2023 and 2024.
TrendMcLaughlin by team (regular season)
| Season | Team | FGM | FGA | FG% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | SF/LAC/IND | 18 | 23 | 78.3% |
| 2020 | JAX | 4 | 5 | 80.0% |
| 2021 | CLE | 15 | 21 | 71.4% |
| 2022 | IND | 30 | 36 | 83.3% |
| 2023 | TB | 29 | 31 | 93.5% |
| 2024 | TB | 30 | 32 | 93.8% |
| 2025 | TB | 32 | 38 | 84.2% |
McLaughlin's first three NFL seasons read like a journeyman story: SF, LAC, IND, JAX, CLE — five different teams before signing with Tampa in 2023.
In his three Tampa years he has put up 91-of-101 (90.1%) — the highest 3-year stretch of his career, on the most attempts. The arc maps cleanly: journeyman → starter → high-volume starter once he found a home.
FG% per season
| Season | FG% |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 78 |
| 2020 | 80 |
| 2021 | 71 |
| 2022 | 83 |
| 2023 | 94 |
| 2024 | 94 |
| 2025 | 84 |
Why it matters. McLaughlin's journeyman years (SF/LAC/IND/JAX/CLE) kept him from developing consistent mechanics with one coaching staff. The Tampa stability gave him a permanent home and unlocked three of the most accurate seasons of his career — showing that for kickers, organizational fit matters as much as leg talent.
Made a 65-yarder in 2025 — tied for the second-longest made FG in NFL history at the time.
MilestoneMcLaughlin career FGs made from 55+ yards
| Season | Distance |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 65 |
| 2025 | 58 |
| 2021 | 57 |
| 2023 | 57 |
| 2023 | 57 |
| 2023 | 57 |
| 2025 | 57 |
| 2024 | 56 |
| 2023 | 55 |
| 2023 | 55 |
| 2024 | 55 |
| 2025 | 55 |
| 2025 | 55 |
In 2025 Week 4 vs Philadelphia, McLaughlin made a 65-yard FG — at the time of the kick, tied for the second-longest made FG in NFL history. He's one of only four kickers in the regular-season play log to make a kick from 65+: Tucker (66), Aubrey (65), McLaughlin (65), Little (67, 68 — both 2025).
He also made a 58-yarder in the same Philadelphia game — the first multiple-55+ game of his career.
Why it matters. A 65-yard field goal is not a kicker having a good day — it is a physical outlier. McLaughlin's distance in that Philadelphia game puts him in the same conversation as Justin Tucker and Cam Little, the only two kickers in the regular-season play log with longer confirmed makes. It reframed how Tampa uses him on long-range attempts.
From 50-54 he's an 91% kicker — career-best for a bucket that breaks most kickers.
SplitCareer FGs by distance (regular season)
| Distance | FGM | FGA | FG% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-39 | 84 | 87 | 96.6% |
| 40-49 | 31 | 48 | 64.6% |
| 50-54 | 30 | 33 | 90.9% |
| 55-59 | 12 | 16 | 75.0% |
| 60+ | 1 | 2 | 50.0% |
McLaughlin's career distance curve has a striking inversion: he converts 50-54 yarders (90.9%) at a higher rate than 40-49 yarders (64.6%). The 40-49 dip is a 4-season artifact (2019-22) from his journeyman years, when he lacked consistent coaching and practice infrastructure — and it has stayed in the career totals ever since.
His 50-54 line — 30-of-33 across his career — is elite by any measure. That bucket is where most of his Tampa-era value lives: of his 30 makes in that range, 14 have come since joining the Bucs in 2023.
FG% by distance
| Distance | FG% |
|---|---|
| 0-39 | 97 |
| 40-49 | 65 |
| 50-54 | 91 |
| 55-59 | 75 |
| 60+ | 50 |
Why it matters. The 40-49 dip is a career-long scar from five years of roster instability. The 50-54 excellence is real, repeatable, and documented across 33 attempts — if Tampa is within McLaughlin range on late drives, they are far more likely to send him out beyond 50 than at 44.
5 NFL teams cut him before age 27. Then he put up the league's best 2-year FG% from 2023-24 (93.6%) on 60+ FGA.
AnomalyMcLaughlin entered the league in 2019 as an undrafted free agent. By the end of 2021 he had kicked for 5 different teams (SF, LAC, IND, JAX, CLE) — none of them kept him for more than a season.
From 2023-2024 with Tampa, he made 59-of-63 FGs (93.7%) — the highest 2-year FG% in the league at that point among any kicker with 60+ attempts. The career arc isn't 'late bloomer' so much as a kicker the league didn't know how to evaluate until volume opportunity confirmed the accuracy.
Why it matters. McLaughlin's accuracy spike wasn't a fluke — 63 attempts is a full two-season sample. Going from a kicker five different franchises cut to the most accurate high-volume kicker in the league over the same two-year window is as dramatic a career reversal as exists at the position.
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