Tyler Bass entering third year as one of NFL’s most productive kickers

You know who doesn’t get the love and attention that they deserve? Tyler Bass. He’s been among the most productive kickers during his first two years in the NFL, and he’s had some clutch kicks for the Bills along the way.

A clutch kick that immediately comes to mind is the 54-yard field goal that he put through the uprights on Wild Card weekend in his rookie year.

That was in the fourth quarter of a very tight game in which the Colts were coming back. The kick stretched the lead from a one-possession game to a two-possession game and went on to be the three points that ultimately decided the outcome of the game, giving Josh Allen, Sean McDermott and company their first playoff win.

From that moment on, Bills fans knew that the kid had ice in his veins. To be put in that spot as a rookie and drill a 54-yarder was something special. A franchise kicker needs to have that clutch gene and the ability to make high-pressure kicks in big moments such as that.

In Bass’s short career he has already achieved some very impressive records. The 54-yard FG against the Colts earned him the record for the longest field goal made by a rookie kicker in a playoff game in NFL history.

He also has the most points scored in a single season (2020) in Bills franchise history with 141.

Bass is currently converting his field goals at an 84.4% rate, which falls around league average. He is 56/66 on field goals in his short career. Impressively, he converted 100% of his extra points as a sophomore in 2021 (51/51). A lot of kickers are known to miss a couple extra points here and there ever since the NFL moved the distance back. He improved on his 82.4 FG% as rookie, climbing up to 87.5% (28/32) in his second year. Take a look at how he ranked across the league after a couple months of play last season:

Entering his third year and having already played in 5 playoff games and 33 regular season games, I feel that benefits him a lot moving forward in his career, especially with the Bills. We know the goals and aspirations the team desires this year and I’m sure Bass will have to make some big kicks along the way to get them to where they want to be. He certainly has the leg power to make long-distance FGs when necessary.

If you have ever wondered why Bass only wears eye black under one eye, it is a tribute to his grandmother. He credits his grandmother for convincing him to try out for the high school football team after she told him that he had a very strong leg from playing soccer and to give kicking a shot in football.

He went on to not only make the team but win the Chris Sailer award following his senior season, awarded to the best high school kicker in the country. He committed to Georgia Southern there where he would continue playing football and playing it at a high level. After redshirting and playing only a couple games as a freshman, he performed extremely well his sophomore, junior, and senior seasons. In those three years, he was nearly perfect on extra points (108 for 109), and went 54 for 68 on field goals. He even punted the ball a handful of times. After making 19 out of 21 field goals in his junior season, while kicking a perfect 45/45 on extra points, he earned First Team All Sun-Belt in 2018.

He beat out former Bills kicker Stephen Hauschka in training camp after being a sixth-round pick by the Bills in 2020, and the rest is history. He’s now one of the most productive kickers in the NFL because he happens to kick for a team that has fielded a dominant offense for the first two years of his career, and that trend should continue.