It's a wonderful feeling as a Cincinnati Bengals fan when you can watch Evan McPherson trot out onto the field and believe with full conviction that automatic points are about to be added to the scoreboard. That's literally been the case this season, as McPherson is perfect on all field goal attempts and PATs.
McPherson has not even sniffed a miss on 10 field goal tries. He seems to be kicking with a combination of confidence and reckless abandon that defined his phenomenal rookie season in 2021, when the Bengals ultimately went to Super Bowl LVI.
FanSided's in-house kicker rankings by the brilliant Adam Fromal had McPherson ranked 12th entering the 2026 campaign. Now, Money Mac is earning much more respect.
McPherson explodes into top seven of advanced data-driven kicker hierarchy
On the strength of ranking fourth-best in Fromal's signature Kick Value Added statistic — which factors in every conceivable variable to determine the value of each kick — Evan McPherson is No. 7 in the newest FanSided Kicker Rankings.
Here's what my guy Fromal had to say about McPherson's surge up the kicker pecking order:
"Evan McPherson may not be done climbing the rankings if he keeps kicking the ball as cleanly as he has in the first portion of the Bengals' season. He's navigated treacherous wind conditions, pumped in five kicks from 50-plus and made everything he's looked at thus far. He's also feasted on an easier slate of kicks than the rest of the top five in KVA, and his accuracy metrics lag behind most of the kickers surrounding him in the rankings. Given his year-over-year inconsistency heading into 2026, McPherson needs to maintain this level over a larger sample before truly threatening for a top-five spot."
That's pretty spot-on analysis and I'd expect nothing less. Really though, McPherson has unfortunately been a roller coaster since that outstanding rookie year.
The worst-timed lull of McPherson's career came in 2024. Joe Burrow was playing like an MVP, but the defense was just dreadful. Nevertheless, McPherson could've swung multiple games with his leg during that 9-8 season and kept flopping at every turn.
McPherson's 2024 KVA of -3.74 ranked 39th in the league. In other words, no fewer than six backups could've replaced him and done a better job. Cincinnati stuck by him of course.
Although he did miss a few extra points last season, McPherson rallied back with his best field goal percentage (89.3%) in nailing 25 of 28 attempts. Thankfully, he's picked up right where he left off from there.
Really, McPherson has been outstanding ever since the offseason program kicked off. I can't recall a single time I heard Money Mac missing a kick at practice. He was perfect in the preseason and that's carried over seamlessly to the real-real games.
Credit to punter/holder Ryan Rehkow and long snapper William Wagner for pulling off a flawless operation to date. If the Bengals are ever in a situation where they need a clutch kick, I'm as confident as ever that McPherson will deliver the goods. He's simply shown nothing to make fans believe otherwise in 2026.
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