Placekicker - Salary and Team Standing

Salary and Team Standing

Placekickers and punters are often the lowest paid starters on professional teams, although proven placekickers sometimes earn over $1 million per year in salary.

In addition, kickers are at times ostracized by other players due to the perceived non-physical and limited nature of their duties, as well as the fact they often are allowed to leave practice before the rest of the team. It is not uncommon for a placekicker to be one of the smallest members of their team. The New York Times in 2011 wrote that NFL kickers had adopted year-round weight training and strict diets. Sebastian Janikowski that year was a 6-foot-2-inch (1.88 m) and 250-pound (110 kg) kicker. Kicker Rob Bironas, who is 6 feet (1.8 m) and 205 pounds (93 kg), noted, "I might be bigger than some wide receivers and cornerbacks."

The presence of foreign born-and-raised players in the highest levels of gridiron football has largely been limited to placekickers—occasionally even coming from outside the traditional American high school and/or college football systems—and all but one of the women to have played men's American football were placekickers while the lone exception was a placekick holder. These anecdotes increase the perception of the placekicker as an outsider.

Nevertheless, due to their duties in kicking both field goals and extra points placekickers are usually responsible for scoring more points than any other player on a team. The top 25 players in NFL history in career scoring are all placekickers.

Janikowski of the Oakland Raiders, is the NFL's highest paid kicker.