Field goals are one of the most overlooked parts of any Madden game but they can make all the difference in the world at the end of a game.
In today’s video (and article) we are going over what does and doesn’t matter for field goals as well as how you can know with certainty the max distance any kicker in Madden 23 can kick a successful field goal from.
Let’s dive in!
There are 3 things that impact how far you can kick a field goal.
- Pushing the left stick down to change the trajectory of the kick and give it a little more distance
- Your kicker’s kick power rating
- Wind
Everything else you can possibly think of doesn’t have any impact on kick distance including:
- Hash mark
- Superstar abilities
- Overall/awareness/kick accuracy rating
- Whether you are playing on Competitive, Simulation or Arcade
- Whether you are playing on Rookie, Pro, All-Pro, or All-Madden
- Whether you are playing MUT, H2H, or Franchise mode
Let’s go through the 3 things that matter and explain them in a little more detail.
Push The Left Stick Down
This is pretty self explanatory. Before you kick a field goal, you want to press the left stick down (towards your body) to give your kick a further maximum distance. All maximum distances that we refer to in this article are with the left stick pushed down.
Kick Power Rating
We did the math on how far each kicker can kick. It is a bit complicated but we developed a simplified formula that works extremely well for you to easily make the calculation with just some simple multiplication.
In order to determine the maximum field goal distance for your kicker just multiply his kick power rating by .65.
.65 x Kick Power = Maximum field goal distance (with no wind)
Here are some examples:
A kicker with 94 kick power: .65 x 94 = 61.1 yard max field goal distance
Or a kicker with 88 kick power: .65 x 88 = 57.2 yard max field goal distance
Or a kicker with 80 kick power: .65 * 80 = 52 yard max field goal distance
You should do this calculation with the kicker that is currently in your lineup so you know at the end of games exactly what yard line you need to get to in order to kick a game winning (or game tying) field goal.
How Wind Impacts Field Goals
Wind can also play a very important role. The calculation for wind is for every 13 miles per hour of wind (at your back or against you) you gain or lose 5 yards of max distance.
So it is as simple as 13 divided by 5 = 2.6. That means that for every 2.6 miles per hour of wind you gain or lose 1 yard.
The way we make this much easier is if the wind is at our back helping us we add 1 yard of max distance for every 3 miles per hour. So if there is 6 miles per hour wind at our back, we can safely add 2 yards of distance.
When the wind is working against us, we subtract 1 yard of max distance for every 2 miles per hour. So if there is 6 miles per hour wind against us, we subtract 3 yards from our max distance.
This way you will never be overly optimistic about how far you can kick when the wind is helping you, and you will always have a little extra room in your calculation when the wind is working against you.
Wind that goes directly right or left won’t impact max kick distance too much and if the wind is either 0 or 1 mph, you can safely ignore it.
Putting it all together
Let’s do a couple of examples with all of it put together.
You have a 95 kick power kicker with 4 miles per hour wind at your back.
We start with .65 x 95 which equals a 61.75 yard max distance with no wind. When we add in the wind it gives us a little over 1 extra yard of help (in this case we can safely assume about 1.25) for a safe max distance of 63 yards.
Or in another example, you have an 80 kicker power kicker with 6 miles per hour wind working against you.
We start with .65 x 80 which equals a 52 yard max distance with no wind. However, we have to factor in the wind which will subtract 3 yards of max distance because it is working against us so we know that we are good from 49 yards and in this situation.
This is the kind of small thing that separates the great Madden players from the good. If you know down to the exact yard how far downfield you need to get in your final drive, it will let you play with a lot more confidence and make you much less likely to make a mistake in those critical moments.
I’ve made a 56 with Butker and 54 with Prater