Who is the most irreplaceable player on the Dallas Cowboys? It is not their best player, star running back Ezekiel Elliott. The Cowboys have played this entire season with the imminent threat of losing him for 6 games to suspension. Fortunately the Cowboys have plenty of depth at the running back position making the loss of Elliott manageable. It is not their best defensive player Sean Lee. The All-Pro did not play against the Rams or Packers and the Cowboys defense suffered greatly. Now that Anthony Hitchens is back though, the linebacker position has some much needed depth and experience. The single most irreplaceable player right now is probably their second year quarterback and dark horse MVP candidate Dak Prescott. However, a close second in my opinion is ultra-reliable kicker Dan Bailey, and that is exactly who needs to be replaced right now.
The Dallas Cowboys came away from San Francisco this past weekend with an impressive blowout victory and yet it was a pyrrhic victory after Dan Bailey pulled his groin forcing him to miss several weeks. The Cowboys have signed a capable and experienced kicker Mike Nugent but he is no Dan Bailey. In fact there are not many kickers that can fill Bailey’s shoes. Only one by my count, and Justin Tucker is currently employed with the Baltimore Ravens.
Cowboy fans have been spoiled having a guy like Dan Bailey splitting the uprights but many don’t realize just how spoiled. Dan Bailey is at the top of the list for field goal accuracy all-time and he and Justin Tucker are a good margin ahead of everyone else.
| Rank ▲ |
Player | FG% | Years | Tm |
| 1 | Dan Bailey | 89.899% | 2011-2017 | dal |
| 2 | Justin Tucker | 89.604% | 2012-2017 | rav |
| 3 | Kai Forbath | 87.826% | 2012-2017 | 3TM |
| 4 | Stephen Gostkowski | 87.397% | 2006-2017 | nwe |
| 5 | Steven Hauschka | 87.234% | 2008-2017 | 4TM |
| 6 | Mike Vanderjagt | 86.466% | 1998-2006 | 2TM |
| 7 | Robbie Gould | 86.286% | 2005-2017 | 3TM |
| 8 | Nate Kaeding | 86.190% | 2004-2012 | 2TM |
| 9 | Rob Bironas | 85.663% | 2005-2013 | oti |
Not only is he an accurate kicker but he has been clutch. According to pro-footbal-lreference.com he has made 91.2% of his field goal attempts in games that have been decided by 7 pts or less!
Having a reliable clutch kicker can be the difference between winning and losing, making the playoffs or missing out, and deciding championships. Can you imagine Tom Brady’s legacy if Adam Vinatieri missed his game winning, 48 yard Super Bowl kicks against the Rams and Panthers respectively? How about the Buffalo Bills of the 90’s? If Chuck Norwood connects against the Giants in 1991 maybe the fortune of the Bills dynasty is changed forever. Don’t forget about Minnesota. If you know any Viking fans that were around in 1998, don’t mention the name Gary Anderson. Aside from the distant past, this season alone the Buc’s and Chargers are among several teams that have lost games due to the failures of their kickers.
Football is the ultimate team game and it is a game of inches. Every player, every yard and every second counts. Let us hope that the Cowboys can play well enough as a team that losing Dan Bailey does not invoke painful memories, as it did for some of the fan bases in the previous examples.
*Photo by Keith Allson (c) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
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All statistics and data collected and verified through https://www.pro-football-reference.com/