There was a time when Evan McPherson making a 50-plus-yard field goal barely registered as news. That was the expectation.
The Bengals’ kicker had established himself as one of the NFL’s most dangerous long-range weapons, and there was a stretch early in his career when anything from beyond midfield felt almost automatic. He was incredible as a rookie in the team’s 2021 run to Super Bowl LVI, and became one of the best young kickers in the league.
After a couple of uneven seasons, however, McPherson
entered 2026 with something to prove. So far, he’s doing exactly that.
McPherson continued his outstanding training camp and preseason Saturday night against the Chicago Bears, drilling both of his field-goal attempts—including a 58-yarder—and all three of his extra-point attempts in Cincinnati’s second preseason game.
And that 58-yarder? It looked extremely easy, and Mike Watts on the Bengals preseason telecast referenced “Thor’s Hammer” when referring to McPherson’s leg.
McPherson is making long kicks look routine again
The Bengals’ first preseason game against Detroit already provided a glimpse of what McPherson could be bringing to the 2026 season. He connected on a 56-yard field goal in Cincinnati’s 16-14 victory, then added kicks from 33 and 41 yards. That performance pushed him to 29-for-31 on field-goal attempts in his preseason career at the time.
Saturday night against Chicago, McPherson picked up right where he left off. His he hit field goals from 58 yards, and from 25, while also converting all three of his extra-point attempts.
That’s an awfully good night for a kicker, but the more important story is the consistency McPherson has shown throughout the summer. This hasn’t been a case of one big kick suddenly appearing out of nowhere.
The training camp signs have been impossible to miss
McPherson has been routinely showing off his leg during camp.
Earlier this month, he made a 65-yard field goal during Cincinnati’s Friday night stadium practice, with Bengals.com noting that the kick appeared to have plenty of distance to spare. McPherson estimated afterward that he probably could have made a kick from 68 or 69 yards under those conditions.
Then, just days before Saturday night’s game against Chicago, McPherson drilled a 50-yard kick through the uprights during a situational practice in which the goal posts had been narrowed to only nine feet.
That isn’t simply making field goals. That’s a kicker repeatedly demonstrating that his leg is in an excellent place.
And Saturday night’s Week 2 preseason game against the Bears provided another opportunity to translate that practice success into a game environment.
The 58-yarder was particularly impressive
There is something different about watching a kicker hit a 58-yarder in a preseason game. It’s not a meaningless extra point. It’s not a short field goal that a team would be disappointed to miss.
It’s a kick that requires excellent operation from the snap and hold, along with the confidence to let the kicker attack the ball.
McPherson did exactly that.
The Bengals’ official video showed the 58-yarder sailing through the uprights with plenty of room to spare. It was a similar scenario with the 56-yarder in the preseason opener last week.
So, it’s becoming a familiar sight again.
McPherson owns the Bengals’ franchise record with a 63-yard field goal, which he set during the 2025 season. He also owns seven of Cincinnati’s nine longest field goals in franchise history.
The leg has never really been the question. The consistency, at times, has.
And that’s where this summer has been so encouraging.
McPherson is coming off his best season
There’s another reason to be optimistic about what we’re seeing. McPherson’s 2025 season was arguably the best regular-season campaign of his career.
He went 25-for-28 on field goals (89.3%), including his career-long 63-yarder, while continuing to provide Cincinnati with the kind of range that changes how an offense can approach the end of a drive.
That season appears to have carried into the offseason and training camp.
Rather than treating 2025 as an isolated bounce-back year, McPherson is looking like a kicker who has found something in his operation and consistency. And for a Bengals team that has Super Bowl aspirations, that’s a pretty significant development.
The Bengals need this version of Evan McPherson
It’s easy to overlook the importance of a reliable kicker when a team has Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins on offense. But Cincinnati has experienced firsthand how valuable McPherson can be.
Field goals matter. Close games matter. Late-game situations matter.
And when a team is trying to make a deep postseason run, having a kicker who can comfortably hit from 50-plus yards can change the way coaches call games. A drive that stalls around the opponent’s 40-yard line doesn’t necessarily have to end in a punt.
A quarterback doesn’t have to force a throw into coverage simply because the offense didn’t get all the way into the red zone. The Bengals can trust McPherson to give them points.
And if he’s consistently connecting from 50-plus yards, that field-goal range becomes even larger.
‘Money Mac’ might be back
There is still plenty of preseason football to play, and nobody should declare a kicker’s season based on training camp and two exhibition games. But it’s difficult not to like what the Bengals are seeing.
McPherson has been routinely making long kicks in practice.
He hit a 56-yarder against Detroit, 58-yarder against Chicago. He has also made his shorter attempts, and he’s been perfect on his extra points in the preseason.
Most importantly, he looks confident—especially coming off of that career 2025 campaign. That’s the version of Evan McPherson Cincinnati needs.
The Bengals didn’t draft McPherson in the fifth round of the 2021 NFL Draft expecting him to merely be an adequate kicker. They drafted him because he could be a weapon.
For much of his career, he has been exactly that.
Now, after some inconsistency in the middle portion of his career, McPherson appears to be rediscovering that same swagger.
And if what we’ve seen throughout training camp and the first two preseason games carries into September, the Bengals may once again have one of the NFL’s most dangerous weapons sitting on the other side of the line of scrimmage.
The Bengals have questions to answer before Week 1. Evan McPherson doesn’t look like one of them.
