Bengals Kicker Evan McPherson Details 2024 Struggles, Adjustments For Future

 Cincinnati is looking for a bounce-back season out of Evan McPherson this fall after the kicker ranked 37th leaguewide with a 72.7% field goal hit rate this most recent campaign.

The longtime Bengals kicker has been nails in the past, but admitted a pursuit of perfection may have thrown things off in 2024. Now, he's getting back to his booting roots.

"Yeah, it's funny. I feel like, as a professional athlete, you're always looking for perfection, but you've got to realize that you're never going to get it," McPherson said to reporters on Friday. "And so I was looking for the straighter ball flight, more consistent ball flight, rather than hit like a draw. And I found it in a certain technique, but I noticed that I wasn't as consistent. But it worked, like my third year. It worked really well, and then I continued trying to do it into my fourth, and I tweaked it a little bit, and it didn't really work out. So I'm at the point now where I'm going back to how I grew up learning how to kick. So I get all I need to focus on is kind of my target line, the wind, and my body just kind of does the rest."

McPherson had never been below 82% in his first three seasons as a Bengal, so there's no reason to believe he can't return to a Pro Bowl level as a 26-year-old.

The veteran is locked in on a contract extension and has the clear path to help Cincinnati's 4-7 record in one-score games last season.

Check out more on McPherson's offseason from Jay Morrison here.