The Los Angeles Chargers have one of the league's best placekickers and after a furious week of roster moves, the team decided to take care of one of its own on Friday. The Chargers gave Dicker a four-year, $22 million extension with $12.5 million guaranteed, making him one of the top five paid kickers in the league.
He deserves it. Dicker has been incredibly reliable in his two seasons with the team. For longtime Chargers fans, it has been a welcomed sight. Those fans have sat through several attempts the team has made to find an answer at kicker and it just hasn't worked out.
Here is a look at the kickers the team has had going back to 2004 when the team used a third-round pick to select Nate Kaeding.
Nate Kaeding (2004-2012)
Kaeding was a solid kicker for the Chargers but he will always be remembered for some crucial misses in the playoffs.
Nick Novak (2011-14)
Novak was a good kicker but he didn't possess exceptional leg strength. He had three different stints with the Chargers, two in San Diego and one in Los Angeles. Ahead of the 2015 season, he was surprisingly beaten out by undrafted kicker Josh Lambo.
Josh Lambo (2015-16)
It seemed the Chargers had found a long-term answer after Lambo beat out Novak, but this was the beginning of the downhill slide. Lambo lost the job ahead of the 2017 season to another undrafted kicker, Younghoe Koo.
Younghoe Koo (2017)
Koo did enough to unseat Lambo but lasted only four games into the 2017 regular season. After several misses, he was cut and the Chargers brought Novak back. Koo was out of the league until 2019 and after a short stint in New England, he ended up with the Atlanta Falcons and has turned into one of the best kickers in football.
Travis Coons (2017)
The Chargers signed Coons to the practice squad and then had to bring him up with Novak's injury. He kicked well for the team but they thought they had found a better option and let him go after claiming Nick Rose off waivers.
Nick Rose (2017)
Remember how bad things were in 2017? The Chargers brought Novak back after releasing Koo and he kicked well until a back injury shut him down for the season. The team then brought in Rose. He was probably the team's worst kicker in 2017, and that's saying something.
Caleb Sturgis (2018)
This is where it seemed like things would turn around for the Chargers at kicker. Sturgis was a fifth-round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles and the Chargers signed him to a two-year contract in free agency to be the kicker of the future. He didn't even get through the season, being waived in November.
Mike Badgley (2018-2020)
This was another guy who seemed like a long-term answer and he had the longest run with the team up to this point since Novak many years earlier. But Badgley dealt with some injuries, leading the team to sign Chase McLaughlin for a brief stint. Following the 2020 season, the Chargers decided they wanted to go in a new direction after Badgley lost the job to Tristan Vizcaino of all people.
Tristan Vizcaino (2021)
Vizcaino didn't even make it through the first half of the 2021 season, missing five extra-point attempts in seven games.
Dustin Hopkins (2021-22)
Hopkins was already a trusted veteran when the Chargers brought him in to replace Vizcaino, having spent the previous seven seasons with Washington. It looked like this was the guy the team would stick with as he was signed to a three-year contract extension following the 2021 season. But just ahead of the season opener in 2023, he was traded to the Cleveland Browns.
Following that trade, the Chargers landed on Dicker, who they had signed to the practice squad in 2022 after a short stint with the Philadelphia Eagles where he relieved Jake Elliott for one game. He thought his NFL career was over after that game, but it has blossomed with the Chargers.
| Kicker | FG Made | FG Attempts | Percentage | XP Made | XP Attempts | FG Long |
| Nate Kaeding | 180 | 207 | 87.0 | 349 | 351 | 57 |
| Nick Novak | 110 | 130 | 84.6 | 173 | 175 | 53 |
| Josh Lambo | 52 | 64 | 81.3 | 70 | 78 | 54 |
| Younghoe Koo | 3 | 6 | 50.0 | 9 | 9 | 41 |
| Travis Coons | 7 | 8 | 87.5 | 5 | 6 | 40 |
| Nick Rose | 1 | 3 | 33.3 | 5 | 6 | 25 |
| Caleb Sturgis | 1 | 3 | 33.3 | 9 | 13 | 49 |
| Mike Badgley | 52 | 65 | 80.0 | 82 | 86 | 59 |
| Tristan Vizcaino | 6 | 7 | 85.7 | 10 | 15 | 46 |
| Dustin Hopkins | 27 | 30 | 90.0 | 42 | 44 | 50 |
| Cameron Dicker | 50 | 53 | 94.3 | 57 | 57 | 55 |
The Chargers have certainly been on a roller-coaster ride at kicker for nearly two decades. They have the right guy in place now and the numbers prove it. Best of all, he is only 24 years old so he could be kicking in Los Angeles for many, many years to come.
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