New Orleans Saints: Wil Lutz is one of the best kickers in the NFL

The New Orleans Saints know how lucky they are to have Wil Lutz as their kicker. Lutz joined the Saints in 2017 after he went undrafted out of Georgia State and has been the team’s kicker ever since, and a good one at that.

Lutz came in at No. 8 on CBS Sports’ list of the best kickers in the league. John Breech, who wrote the article, offered this analysis:

"Although Lutz struggled a little bit last year, he has a long track record of success in the NFL, which is why he made the top-10 even though he ranked just 21st in overall accuracy last season. When you look at his career, Lutz has been consistently good. In 2018 and 2019, Lutz ranked in the top-seven in accuracy, including 2019, when he hit 88.9% of his field goals, which ranked seventh overall (He ranked sixth in 2018). When Lutz catches fire, he gets in a groove that few other kickers can match. At one point in 2018, he hit 26 straight field goals, which set a Saints franchise record. Although Lutz had a down year in 2020, he did prove that he can still hit clutch kicks and one of his biggest came in Week 8 when he hit a game-winner against the Bears."

As Breech noted, last year was a down year for Lutz, so to speak, as he had the worst field goal percentage of his career with an 82.1%. His previous low was 82.4%, which came in his rookie year, so that was a little more understandable.

Still, the Saints know they’re in a better situation than most teams when it comes to their kicking situation. Lutz attempted the fewest amount of field goals in his career last year too with just 28 attempts, connecting on 23 of them with a long of 53.

New Orleans Saints kicker Wil Lutz is one of the best in the league at his position.

Lutz might have struggled a little more in the field goal department than he typically has but he had his best season when it came to extra points. He missed just one extra point in 2020, going 57-of-58 on such attempts. That might not seem like much, but when you compare it to someone like Harrison Butker of the Chiefs (who was No. 2 on this list), who missed six extra-point attempts, they can add up after a while. The Saints didn’t have to worry about that.

Breech pointed out that Lutz gets hot, as he had a streak of 26 consecutive made field goals last year. The Saints know when they get into the red zone that they can count on Lutz to get them at least three points and that’s a nice luxury to have that a lot of other NFL teams would love to be gifted with.

As Lutz enters year five with the Saints, fans hope to see him rebound from what was technically his “weakest” season but at the same time, for him to come off such a season and still be listed as a top 10 kicker is saying something.

New Orleans struck gold when they signed Wil Lutz as a UDFA four years ago.