Buffalo Bills have more field goal attempts than punts so far this season

User RuneSlayer4421 on Reddit did some stat scouring and discovered that the Buffalo Bills have attempted more field goals than punts this year which sounds kinda crazy. It’s true though—Tyler Bass has attempted 22 field goals while Corey Bojorquez has punted 21 times.

RuneSlayer4421 ponders: “Pretty wild stat, can’t imagine that’s too common.”

Which is where I come in. How weird is this stat? Pretty weird.

The average NFL team has attempted 16.3 field goals and 29 punts. Right off the bat that puts the Bills well above average on field goal attempts (third-highest) and really low on punts (fourth-lowest). We’re already in pretty weird territory as Bills fans because this helps demonstrate how frequently Buffalo creates scoring opportunities.

Is this rare though? In 2020 it is. The Carolina Panthers are the only other team to share this distinction in case we needed another Carolina connection and the Las Vegas Raiders are break-even. The Panthers are the current leaders in this weird stat as not only do they have 24 field goal attempts to 18 punts, but they’ve also made more field goals than they’ve punted with 19 made.

If 2020 ends up like 2019 this isn’t likely to continue. Buffalo finished with 52 more punts than field goal attempts last season. Kansas City came the closest to making it happen but still had 11 more punts than field goal attempts.

One more fun thing to look at: Buffalo has six more extra-point attempts than they do punts. They’re tied for first in this unusual stat with Kansas City and the Green Bay Packers. There are a few more teams on the positive side of the ledger with one quarter of the league having more extra-point attempts than punts. That’s less rare but still significant.

League-wide, punting is way down and scoring is way up: