National Football League

Pick Six: Success & failures drafting kicker with high pick

Published Apr. 18, 2016 9:33 p.m. ET

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Since the common draft era in 1967, 201 kickers have been selected, but only 34 have been selected in the top 100 including three in the first round.

With Florida State's Roberto Aguayo having a chance to be the first kicker taken in the first three rounds since 2005, here is a Pick Six of some of the successes and failures of past drafts:

THREE WHO SUCCEEDED:

Sabastian Janikowski: He is the most recent kicker taken in the first round, going 17th overall to the Raiders in 2000. Janikowski will be going into his 17th season and is second among active kickers in points (1,675) and extra points (520) along with being third in field goals (385).

Janikowski is one of only three players remaining from the 2000 draft who are still playing. The others are Texans punter Shane Lechler, who spent his first 13 seasons with the Raiders, and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.

Jason Hanson: Taken by the Lions in the second round (56th overall) in 1992, Hanson played 21 seasons, all with Detroit. In 2011, he became the first player in NFL history to play 300 games with one team and finished with 327.

Hanson also holds the league record for most field goals made from 50 yards or more with 52. He remains third in league history in field goals (495) and points (2,150).

Morten Andersen: After the Saints whiffed on Russell Erxleben in the first round in 1978, they waited until the fourth round of 1982 to draft their next kicker. This one had more staying power.

Andersen played 25 seasons with five teams, but spent his first 13 years with New Orleans. He is the NFL's career scoring leader with 2,544 points and played in a league-record 382 games. Andersen's career accuracy is only 79.7 percent, but he made 45 of 51 field goals his final two years with the Falcons.

Andersen has been a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame the past three years and is trying to join Jan Stenerud as the only full-time kickers to be enshrined.

THREE WHO FAILED:

Russell Erxleben: The Saints took the punter and kicker out of Texas with the 11th overall pick in 1979. He never did take hold of the kicking job, going 4 of 8 on field goals in five seasons.

His post-football career hasn't gone well either. In 1999, Erxleben was sentenced to seven years in prison for security fraud. In 2014, he received another seven-year prison term for money laundering.

Steve Little: An All-American at Arkansas, where he tied an NCAA record with a 67-yard field goal, Little was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals with the 15th overall pick in 1978.

Little was drafted as both a punter and kicker, only punting in his rookie year. He struggled as a kicker going 10 of 19 on field goals and 24 of 32 on extra points in 1979. He missed five of first eight field goals and two extra points in six games in 1980 before being waived.

The night he was released, Little was involved in a bad car crash after a night of drinking. He broke his neck and would be a quadriplegic until he died in 1999 at the age of 43.

Charlie Gogolak: One of the first soccer style kickers in football, Gogolak was the first kicker selected in the first round when he was taken sixth overall by the Redskins in 1966. That remains the highest a kicker has been selected.

Gogolak played six seasons (Redskins 1966-68, Patriots 1970-72) as his career was cut short due to injuries. Gogolak's older brother, Pete, played 11 seasons with the Bills and Giants. The brothers combined to kick an NFL record 14 extra points during the Redskins' 72-41 win over the Giants in 1966.

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