Chargers Finally Acquire One Of The NFL's Best Kickers

The Los Angeles Chargers have one of the best kickers in the league and after a week of personnel moves, the team decided to deal one of their own on Friday. The Chargers gave Dicker a four-year, $22 million extension with $12.5 million guaranteedmaking him one of the five highest-paid kickers in the league.

He deserves it. Dicker has been incredibly reliable in his two seasons with the team. For longtime Chargers fans, this is a welcome sight. Those fans have seen the team try several times to find an answer at kicker and it just hasn’t worked.

Here’s a look at the kickers the team has had since 2004, when the team used a third-round pick to select Nate Kaeding.

Nate Kaeding (2004-2012)

Kaeding was a solid kicker for the Chargers, but he will always be remembered for a few crucial misses in the playoffs.

Nick Novak (2011-14)

Novak was a good kicker but didn’t have exceptional leg strength. He played three games with the Chargers, two in San Diego and one in Los Angeles. Before the 2015 season, he was surprisingly beaten out by undrafted kicker Josh Lambo.

Josh Lambo (2015-16)

It looked like the Chargers had found a long-term solution after Lambo beat out Novak, but it was the beginning of a downward spiral. Lambo lost his job before the 2017 season to another undrafted kicker, Younghoe Koo.

Koo Youth (2017)

Koo did what it took to dethrone Lambo, but lasted just four games in the 2017 regular season. After several failures, he was fired and the Chargers brought back Novak. Koo was out of the league until 2019 and after a brief stint in New England, he ended up with the Atlanta Falcons and became one of the best kickers in football.

Travis Coons (2017)

The Chargers signed Coons to the practice squad and had to bring him in because of Novak’s injury. He played well for the team, but they thought they had found a better option and let him go after claiming Nick Rose off waivers.

Nick Rose (2017)

Remember how bad things were in 2017? The Chargers brought back Novak after releasing Koo and he played well until a back injury shut him down for the season. Then the team brought in Rose. He was probably the worst kicker on the team in 2017, and that’s saying something.

Caleb Sturgis (2018)

That’s when things seemed to change for the Chargers at kicker. Sturgis was a fifth-round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles and the Chargers signed him to a two-year contract as a free agent to be the kicker of the future. He didn’t even finish the season, being released in November.

Mike Badgley (2018-2020)

He was another guy who seemed like a long-term answer and had the longest run with the team so far since Novak several years earlier. But Badgley dealt with some injuries, leading the team to sign Chase McLaughlin for a brief stint. After the 2020 season, the Chargers decided they wanted to go in a new direction after Badgley lost his job to Tristan Vizcaino.

Tristan Vizcaino (2021)

Vizcaino didn’t even make it through the first half of the 2021 season, missing five extra-point attempts in seven games.

Dustin Hopkins (2021-22)

Hopkins was already a trusted veteran when the Chargers brought him in to replace Vizcaino, after he spent the previous seven seasons in Washington. It seemed like he was the guy the team was going to stick with as he signed a three-year contract extension after the 2021 season. But just before the 2023 season began, he was traded to the Cleveland Browns.

Following that trade, the Chargers brought up Dicker, who they had signed to the practice squad in 2022 after a brief stint with the Philadelphia Eagles where he replaced Jake Elliott for one game. He thought his NFL career was over after that game, but it blossomed with the Chargers.

Kicker	Manufactured by FG	FG attempts	Percentage	XP done	XP Attempts	FG long
Nate Kaeding	180	207	87.0	349	351	57
Nick Novak	110	130	84.6	173	175	53
Josh Lambo	52	64	81.3	70	78	54
Young-Hoe Koo	3	6	50.0	9	9	41
Travis Coons	7	8	87.5	5	6	40
Nick Rose	1	3	33.3	5	6	25
Caleb Sturgis	1	3	33.3	9	13	49
Mike Badgley	52	65	80.0	82	86	59
Tristan Vizcaino	6	7	85.7	10	15	46
Dustin Hopkins	27	30	90.0	42	44	50
Cameron Dicker	50	53	94.3	57	57	55

The Chargers have certainly had their ups and downs at kicker for nearly two decades. They now have the right guy in place and the numbers prove it. Best of all, he’s only 24, so he could be around for many, many years to come in Los Angeles.