The ball boomed off the right foot of kicker Alex Henery and sailed through the uprights with plenty of distance to spare.
With no referee at this Organized Team Activity, guard Evan Mathis signaled with his arms that the kick, which was from around 49 yards out, was good. The sight of the referee's arms going sky high following a Henery kick was customary in the kicker's first two seasons in the league. Henery set a franchise record in his rookie season by connecting on 88.9 percent of his field goal attempts, which at the time was also the NFL rookie record. In 2012, Henery set another franchise mark by hitting 22 straight field goal attempts as he posted the fourth-highest field goal percentage in team history.
Last season, Henery eclipsed the 100-point mark for the third time in his career with 114. He missed five field goals all season for an 82.1 percent success rate, but four of those misses came inside of 50 yards out.
"The main thing is working on the things I didn't do so well on last year, but it's the same mechanics and routine going through everything. It's just in the offseason you have a lot of time to pick on the little things," Henery said.
What are those little things? Henery noticed that too often he was not doing a good enough job of keeping his head down and that he was occasionally falling off to the side.
"I always compare things to a golf swing. If you're doing something real small that's making your drive go slice on you, there are things to correct it and you just have to make sure every time you're doing that," Henery said. "When you do that, you build a rhythm down then it becomes second nature."
The kicking game in the NFL isn't just limited to field goals. Even though Henery had 37 touchbacks and a touchback percentage of 42 percent, both career highs, in 2013, the former All-America at Nebraska wants to see improvement in that phase as well. Henery talked to other kickers around the league and spent time this offseason studying film of the best kickoff specialists to see what he can adapt to his game. Henery did not kick off in college and realized that the technique he used needed to be tweaked.
"I think a lot of it is body position and finishing through the ball. My kickoffs the last few years have been more of a field goal style. Some of the guys who have a lot of touchbacks, there's more finish through the ball getting that momentum going up and through. That's the big thing I've been working on," said Henery, a fourth-round pick of the Eagles in 2011. "I'm just trying to add yards onto my kickoffs."
Henery isn't alone in the battle to be the Eagles' kicker in 2014. The team signed rookie free agent Carey Spear after the former Vanderbilt Commodore broke the single-season school record with 99 points last year.
"Competition is always good," Henery said. "It makes everyone better so it's just one of those things. We're both different how we kick the ball, but in the end it pushes you to be better and works on your routine.
"Here you've got to be that much better. The level of competition is that much greater. There's not much room for error."
It's with that mindset Henery chips away like a golfer trying to improve his stroke so that when the next field-goal opportunity arises, the referee's arms will go into the air adding three more points on the scoreboard.
