USFL kicker drills 61-yard field goal as new league produces a kick of 60 or more for second straight week

If you’re a USFL kicker trying to land an NFL job in the future, a quick way to get noticed is to hit a field goal of 60 yards or more, and surprisingly, two kickers have actually done that over the past week. 

The most recent long distance kick came from Ramiz Ahmed, who drilled a 61-yard field goal during the third quarter of Pittsburgh’s 29-18 loss to the New Jersey Generals on Friday night. To put that in perspective, there have only been 21 field goals of 61 or more yards in the entire history of the NFL. 

Here’s what Ahmed’s kick looked like: 

Although Ahmed has never played in an NFL game, he did get a taste of the league back in 2020 when he went to training camp with the Chicago Bears. Unfortunately for Ahmed though, there were no preseason games that year, so he never got a chance to attempt a field or an extra point in a game-like situation. Ahmed was competing with Eddy Pineiro for the Bears’ kicking job, but ended up losing out. 

The other long field goal in the USFL came last week when Cole Murphy hit a 60-yard field goal for the Michigan Panthers. Murphy has been one of the best kickers in the USFL through the first seven weeks of the season, hitting 7 of 8 kicks, including the 60-yarder that you can see below. 

Murphy has been so good this season that it won’t be surprising if the former Syracuse kicker earns an invite to an NFL training camp this year. 

The fact that the USFL has now produced two field goals of at least 60 yards is pretty crazy when you consider the fact there have been NINE seasons over the past 15 years (2007-11, 2014-16, 2020) where NFL kickers didn’t even combine to produce two 60-yard field goals. 

Kickers have been showing off their range over the past 12 months though. Not only did the USFL produce two kicks of 60 yards or more over the past week, but NFL kickers combined to hit four field goals of 60 yards or more during the 2021 season, which is the most 60-plus yard field goals that have ever been made in a single season. 

Of course, the longest NFL kick of 2021 belonged to Justin Tucker, who set the record for longest field goal in league history when he hit a 66-yard game-winner to give the Ravens a dramatic 19-17 win over the Lions back in September.