Kickers are insanely good now.
At the time of the merger, about 60% of the Field Goal attempts were successful, now it’s around 85%. And back then attempts over 50 yards were rare, even with the goalposts at the goal line.
Knowing what I know about this team....they’re gonna need this kid 😏
Back in the early 80’s at my HS alma mater, our placekicker still had the square-toed shoe and kicked straight-on rather than the soccer-style sidewinder method.
That could be because football kickers couldn't kick a ball that distance consistently using the straight-on style, thus rarely attempted it (yes, I know that Tom Dempsey held the record for a long time, but I'm talking in general).
It took soccer-style kickers (or even rugby kickers) to show the advantage of kicking that style instead of simply "straight-on".