Let’s just set the record straight right now.
Chip Kelly isn’t looking around for Cody Parkey’s replacement. Not after one measly preseason game.
“No we’re not,” the Eagles' head coach said after his second-year kicker botched one field goal, one extra point and nearly missed another field goal in the Eagles’ 36-10 preseason win over the Colts at the Linc (see Instant Replay).
“I mean, he was an all-Pro Bowl kicker last year. In his first exhibition game he missed an extra point and a field goal. He hit three from 40, too. I wouldn’t push the panic button right now.”
Parkey, acquired via trade last year very late in the preseason, ended up leading all NFL rookies with 150 points, breaking a record held by former Bears kicker Kevin Butler for almost 30 years.
He converted 32 of 36 field goal attempts (89 percent), set franchise records with four kicks of at least 50 yards and 46 touchbacks and broke David Akers’ 2008 team record of 144 points in a season.
Which made Sunday’s sophomore preseason follow-up so puzzling.
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He pushed an extra point in the first quarter — moved back 13 yards after an offseason rule change — wide right and missed a 34-yarder in the third the same way against the team that signed him last year after the draft and then dealt him to the Eagles.
One of his three makes — from 48 yards — just barely knuckled inside the left goal post on his longest attempt of the day.
The rustiness overshadowed the fact that Parkey actually made three field goals, all from at least 40 yards.
“Everyone is human. Everyone misses a kick here and there,” Parkey said. “But it’s embarrassing to go out there and miss two in the first game. And it sucks for me to do it. I’m just going to go out there next week and do better.”
Bouncing back from the misses, Parkey admitted, can consume the mind. Which isn’t good for a kicker.
“It’s not easy, no. You miss a kick and you’re like, ‘Well, what happened?'" he said. “You think about it until your next kick. But I think the test of a true kicker is you go out there and miss, can you make the next one?
“Obviously I had a couple of ups and down in the game, finished on a good one, so just go out there next week and do my thing.”
One could understand why sensitivities might be high with Parkey, even after last year’s emergence from nowhere.
The Eagles recently banked on another kicker who hit the skids after a record-setting rookie year. That guy, Alex Henery, was the struggling kicker Parkey replaced last season when the Eagles decided they needed to cut the cord just two years after Henery made 24 of 27 attempts (88.9) to set a rookie record for accuracy.
Henery’s confidence bottomed out quickly after his rookie year. He converted 87.1 percent his second year and then 82.1 percent in his third season, Kelly’s first as Eagles coach.
Parkey, who had some rocky practices earlier in the week, insisted that his confidence isn’t rattled.
“It’s sky high,” he said. “It couldn’t be better. I got the best holder, best snapper in the league, best protection. So I’m just going to go out there and kick and do my thing.”
Parkey said the snaps and holds were perfect on his two misses, each in the 30-yard range.
“That should be very easily made by me and obviously it’s on me,” he said. “Missed the kicks, but that just shows why we do preseason, to get some kicks under your belt, to get some plays under your belt and feel natural, feel good going into the first game.”