Ryan Succop is outkicking his reputation for limited field-goal distance
TAMPA — The question was carefully couched in the form of a compliment. Ryan Succop was not fooled.
Halfway through a recital of all the long field goals he has kicked this season, Succop began to grin as if he was already anticipating the quicksand he was about to be shoved into.
So, Ryan, has your leg gotten stronger in 2022, or did everyone underestimate you the past few seasons?
“You know,” he says ever-so-sweetly, “I don’t think I’m going to get into that.”
Succop can afford to be magnanimous these days. He held off another challenge from another young hotshot in training camp, and now he is off to his best start in years.
It’s not just that he’s converted 9 of 10 field goal attempts, but he’s also perfect from beyond 45 yards. That distance is important because it was supposedly the limit of his comfortable range, as described by former Bucs coach Bruce Arians in 2020.
And Arians had some justification. In the previous four seasons, Succop was 6-of-11 on field goals between 45 and 49 yards. This year, he’s 6-of-6 from that distance.
He insists nothing has changed, no secrets have been uncovered. The knee injury that led to his release in Tennessee in 2019 is offered as a possible explanation, but he says that hasn’t been a factor in years.
The truth is, Succop has always had a better leg than he was probably given credit for. He’s never been Brett Maher or Evan McPherson drilling field goals from 59 yards or more, but he wasn’t always considered a shorter-range specialist, either.
From 2015-17, he was practically automatic from 40-49 yards, converting 88.6 percent of his kicks. The NFL average for that distance was 78.2 percent. Those types of results have not earned him any Pro Bowl bids, but they’ve kept him employed with three different teams for 14 years.
“We’re very comfortable with him, because he’s reliable,” Bucs coach Todd Bowles said. “He’s always going to hit the field goal right on time. I don’t think he’s hitting a 60-yarder, but we’re not asking him to. At the same time, efficiency means a lot. If you have a big leg but you’re not accurate, it doesn’t say too much. We’re very comfortable with where he’s at.”
These are good times for Succop. He’s at a point in his life where he can comfortably navigate his career without riding the emotional highs/lows that are usually inherent in his job.
He credits his faith, but he also acknowledges his experiences. Getting released by the Titans in the spring of 2020 — and then going six months without a job offer before the Bucs called late in training camp — helped him appreciate the life he had crafted.
“You have surgery, you don’t quite come back the way you want to, and it becomes very frustrating,” Succop said. “I look back at that time and I think I really learned a lot, I think it really humbled me. I grew a lot as a man, as a player, going through that. At the same time, it gave me a chance to get healthy again. And now, having gotten on the other side of that, I look back and see it as a blessing.”
Not so much for the Titans. They’re on their fourth kicker since releasing Succop and have a 76.9 percent conversion rate since 2020. Succop, meanwhile, is at 87.3 percent with the Bucs and won a Super Bowl.
Along the way, he’s taken advantage of Tom Brady’s TB12 training principles that have helped with pliability and strength now that he has passed his 36th birthday.
Other than that, however, Succop says there have been no major revelations, no dramatic changes to his routine. He still lives in Nashville and still works in the offseason on a local high school field.
The biggest change is his 7-year-old son, Cooper, now tags along and is in charge of shooting video of the workouts.
As for the success on longer field goals this season, he points out the minute difference between being a league-average kicker and a sensation. If he had just converted one more field goal in each of the last two seasons, he would have been at 84 percent beyond 40 yards.
That’s still not as good as he’s done in 2022, but it’s an example of how narrow the difference is between success and looking for a new kicker.
“I didn’t even play football until I was in high school, and nowadays you’ve got kids in middle school who are working with private kicking coaches,” Succop said. “There’s just some amazing kickers in the NFL now, and so it’s kind of neat to be able to still go out there and compete against those guys.
“There are things that I work on every year and I hope I’ve improved over the time I’ve been in the league. That’s one of the things I’ve really enjoyed about playing for so long is that pursuit of finding ways to get better. The bar seems to get raised every year, and I’m just trying to be as prepared as I can.”
John Romano can be reached at jromano@tampabay.com. Follow @romano_tbtimes,
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