When the Eagles selected kicker Alex Henery in the fourth round of last April's draft, the pick was met with much discussion. How would the decision to move on from David Akers, inarguably the best kicker in franchise history, in favor of an untested rookie affect the team's chances in 2011? Well, with 15 games in the books, it's pretty easy to declare at this point that the Eagles' choice to move forward with Henery has worked out quite well.

Henery has made his last 14 field goal attempts and is in position to finish the year with the most accurate season in Eagles history. If Henery makes one or more field goal on Sunday against the Washington Redskins without a miss, he will surpass the previous franchise record for field goal accuracy in a season, set by David Akers in 2002 (88.2 percent). Henery is in rare air for a rookie - in fact, his current 88 percent conversion rate on field goals is second-best in NFL history for a rookie, behind only fellow 2011 rookie Dan Bailey of the Dallas Cowboys.

And yet, despite his impressive season, Henery's performance as a field goal kicker is about what special teams coordinator Bobby April expected.

"Not necessarily," April said, when asked if Henery had surpassed April's expectation. "I think he's kicking off better than I thought he would, but I had a lot of confidence in him. A lot stemmed from when I went out there and visited Nebraska and the type of confidence yet humility, the type of focus yet not uptightness (Henery had). And then I looked at the big games he was in and he kicked the best in the big games, so that along with a four-year career that was really good, I mean, I thought he was pretty darn good."

Henery tended to agree with April on both counts. He's lived up to his expectations as a field goal kicker, but he's also very proud of his performance in kickoffs, a role he did not perform at Nebraska. Eagles' opponents have an average starting position of the 21.3-yard-line after kickoffs, which is tied for seventh in the league. The Eagles ranked ninth in the category last season.

"Coming in, I just wanted to be perfect," said Henery. "I wanted to go out and show people I could kick off just because it was something I hadn't done before. I think it's gone pretty well to my expectations."

But Henery still said he has plenty to work on throughout the coming offseason.

"Some of my kickoffs, I hit them a little high," he said. "So just working on a few small things rather than change anything drastically."

April, meanwhile, gave Henery some pretty strong praise - he said the young kicker has a chance to be as essential to the Eagles during his career as Akers was once upon a time.

"I think he does," said April. "I think he's really gifted in the two areas you need to be. I think he has the mechanics and I think he has the mindset to be able to do it. I know when we drafted him we thought he would, should, or could have a long career as a kicker in the National Football League, and he has a lot of real good qualities. We saw him and we thought he could do it, and he's so far been able to rise up for the most part. I know he's got a couple of glitches in there. But his leg is getting stronger which is kind of surprising because as the season wears on, his kickoffs have been pretty good. They've been better than I think we anticipated, and hopefully he gets even stronger. There will be a point where he may fall off or reach a plateau, but I think for him, right now, his ceiling is still pretty high."

Eagles fans will certainly await what Henery can do for an encore.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter @EaglesInsider.