NFC Championship Breakdown: Special Teams

By: Jesse Larch, Sports Talk Philly editor 

Leading up to the Eagles playoff matchup against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday in the NFC Championship Game Sports Talk Philly and Eagledelphia will compare the personnel of the two teams each day until gameday is here. 

In this edition of our week-long comparison we will look at the special teams units of both teams. 

Minnesota ST | Kai Forbath,  Ryan Quigley, Marcus Sherels

Kai Forbath connected on 84.2 percent of his field goal attempts this season. He only missed two kicks inside of 40-yards all season but had four misses on 16 attempts beyond 40-yards. His long was 53 yards. 

Punter Ryan Quigley placed 29 punts inside of the 20 but with just an average distance of 39.2 yards. 

Marcus Sherels was the seventh-best punt returner in the NFL with an average of 9.5 yards per return. 

Philadelphia ST | Jake Elliott, Donnie Jones, Kenjon Barner

The Eagles' kicking game has leaned on a rookie. Jake Elliott connected on 26-of-31 field goals including the NFL's season long of 61 yards. Elliott has a strong leg but is still honing his control. 

Donnie Jones took care of punting the ball for the Eagles this season and placed 21 of his punts inside of the 20-yard line with an average distance of 45.3 yards. 

The Eagles added Kenjon Barner earlier this season after Darren Sproles suffered a season ending injury and the return specialist did a respectable job ranking 11th in punt return average (8.9 yards), but only averaged 19.4 yards on 10 kick returns. 

Edge

Kai Forbath (84.2%) edged out Jake Elliott (83.9%) in terms of field goal percentage this season, but Elliott converted more kicks from long range and with a better percentage. From beyond 40 yards Elliott had a 89.4% success rate while Forbath only made 75.0% of his kicks that were 40 yards or further. 

Quigley gets the edge over Jones because he placed more kicks inside of the 20 yard line. 

Sherels also carries an edge over Kenjon Barner due to his slightly better punt return average. 

All of these edges are slightly in the Vikings favor, but the Vikings have the better special teams players heading into Sunday.