Howie says the Eagles ‘continue to believe’ in Jake Elliott, but the numbers are hard to ignore

Jake Elliott is a two-time Super Bowl champion and has spent nine years in Philadelphia. He might already be the best kicker in franchise history. None of that is up for debate.

Back-to-back disappointing seasons will get people asking questions, and Howie Roseman was asked about Elliott’s future at the NFL Combine this week.

Howie Roseman’s answer was about as supportive as you would expect.

“I think that Jake has been a tremendous kicker for us since we got him off the practice squad in Cincinnati in 2017. Tremendously clutch. Have a lot of confidence in him as a player, as a kicker, as a person, a captain on our team and continue to believe in him as our place kicker.”

That is a vote of confidence. It is also, as always with Howie, worth watching what actually happens rather than taking the words at face value.

The Jake Elliott numbers from 2025 are not good.

Jake Elliott made 20 of 27 field goals on the season, a 74.1% clip, and went 4 for 8 from 50 or more yards. Zoom out over the last two seasons and he has converted just 33.3% of his attempts from 50-plus yards, which is the worst mark in the NFL among kickers with at least five attempts in that range.

That is a real problem, especially for a team that plays in meaningful January games where those kicks tend to come up.

The career resume is undeniable. Jake Elliott is 28 for 29 on field goals in the playoffs and went 9 for 9 in Super Bowls. Elite when it counts most.

However… he did miss three PATs during the Super Bowl LIX run and had a critical miss in the wild-card loss to the 49ers the year before. The margin for error in the postseason is too thin for those moments to be written off entirely.

The contract complicates things. Jake Elliott signed a four-year, $24 million extension in March of 2024, and cutting him carries real dead money consequences. A pre-June 1 cut raises his cap hit from roughly $4.9 million to nearly $11 million. A post-June 1 cut softens the blow a bit, pushing it to around $7 million spread across two seasons.

Neither option is ideal, but the post-June 1 route is at least workable if competition comes in and Elliott loses the job outright.

The best outcome here is the simplest one:

Jake Elliott bounces back, the conversation goes away, and he finishes his career in Philadelphia the way he deserves to. That is still entirely possible but the Eagles expressing public confidence in a player while quietly keeping their options open is a very familiar script, and nobody should be surprised if a kicker quietly shows up to compete for the spot this summer.

Actions speak louder than words, and we have not seen the actions yet.

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