GH: Is that different than last year?

EM: I feel like it’s different than years past. I feel like I knew the situation, and I feel like you maybe take a little bit more time to assess the whole situation, maybe the wind and factors and everything. But I feel like this year and last year, every kick I’ve just tried to go out there with one thought and commit to one target and not really overthink it.

GH: That that all started after the groin injury ended your worst season in 2024. Did you have a moment of Nirvana?

EM:  I feel like the injury was probably, what do they say? A blessing in disguise. I didn’t want to get hurt, but I probably wasn’t in the best spot mentally at the time, like kicking-wise. The injury just gave me time to, I guess, step back and reflect on things that I needed to change in my approach to the game of football.

I feel like there for a little bit I took it for granted a lot and maybe skipped all the small pieces of the puzzle you need to do to be successful, as in recovery stuff, like stretching before and after practice, before and after games, even at night, and just taking care of my body in a way where I  can step on the field confidently knowing that my body’s ready to perform at the highest level possible.

And I feel like with the injury, it obviously really forced me to just kind of sit with my thoughts and think about ways that I could just be there for my team even more, and then how I could approach kicking. I wasn’t hitting the ball terrible, but I wasn’t hitting the ball great. And that time away, I feel like it showed me that I needed to kind of go back to the basics and do all those drills that I did growing up that made me a good kicker, and I feel like that’s what I’ve done the past two years is stay consistent with the small drills.

EM: Like my warmup with the bottle. A lot of people ask me why I do it, and it’s a training aid for me. The main person that came to mind is a golfer, Scottie Scheffler. You could argue he’s the greatest golfer of all time. But he’s the greatest golfer of our generation right now, and you see him on the driving range, and he starts every practice with his grip trainer, and he’s constantly working on his grip, working on his grip, and you’re just like, he’s the best golfer in the world. Why does he have to work on his grip?

Because if you think you’ve got it all figured out, it only takes one or two times to kind of hit you in the mouth and kind of humble you. And so I feel like he’s found a way to focus on the small details, which I feel like produces big results, and so that’s kind of what I’ve been focusing on. It’s like not feeling like I’ve got everything figured out because I don’t, and I never will. But I feel like if you always have that interest in perfecting the craft, I feel like you have a better chance of succeeding because you’re doing all the small things to find that success.

That’s what I found. Why is the number one player in the world of golf doing all these little drills? It’s because they matter. I feel like I should be doing everything that I can in my position in small drills and ball contact stuff and mindset things. Just thinking about making myself the best I can.

GH: What do you do with the bottle?

EM: I injured my plant ankle last year, and it was causing me to come in a little pigeon-toed. So my toe was closing, and then I was swinging around the ball and just kind of like pulling everything. And so as my ankle healed and got stronger, I was still having issues with coming in closed and coming around it. And so I put a bottle there.

In college I would come in pretty close to the ball, so I put a bottle there and then a bottle four yards in front of me. It’s kind of like a little triangle, I guess, and so the bottle next to the ball is to make sure my plant foot doesn’t get too close, and it’s pointing in the right direction every kick, and then the bottle four yards in front is a reminder to get through the ball because in college I had a big issue just falling off the ball. And when you hit it good, it goes really far. But whenever you get under it and you fall out of it, the ball typically just goes pretty far right, and it’s spinning really fast. And so all I worked on coming out of college was my plant and finishing downfield.

I didn’t do any of that for four or five years. And then last year I just kind of implemented that into my routine, and I’ve noticed a lot of leaps on my ball contact, my ball contact consistency, getting down the field, not falling out of balls as much. I feel like I’m able to handle the wind a little bit better.

GH: How did you get through that stretch after you got hurt?

EM: Going through my injury, for the most part, a lot of it was my wife, and also I guess family and stuff. I talk a lot with my younger brother about kicking since he’s at Auburn.

GH: You were married right after your rookie year in 2022, and you have two little girls.  How has fatherhood impacted your kicking?

EM: It’s been great because everybody says that kids bring a certain perspective into life and to sports, and they certainly do. Kids definitely humble you in a good way. Just because it’s funny, they don’t care if you have a good day or a bad day. They’re still going to love you. They’re still going to make you change their diaper. I have great games, and a lot of people, they ask, oh, what do you go home and do? I go home and change a poopy diaper.

GH: What would you do after Sunday’s game?

EM: My wife and went to Camporosso’s in Fort Mitchell and had a nice dinner with her cousins. They came into town. Thankful for our babysitter. I got to see my oldest daughter, Merritt (two-and-a-half), whenever we got home and like I said, she doesn’t care. She doesn’t know. She was at the game, but she was in the daycare just playing. The youngest is Millie. We had a nice relaxing dinner without the kids. And I was able to see my daughter and rock her before bed, so that was really nice.

GH: Were you able to lift them up Monday morning because of your neck?

EM: You have to. They don’t care. But of course, man.

GH: So a wife, two kids. Last week you went to Merritt’s first ballet recital, which can only mean you’re climbing up the Bengals’ all-time lists in your sixth season here. You’ve hit 16 straight field goals and Shayne Graham’s record of 21 is in reach. Your career percentage of 83.67 is getting close to Graham’s 86.76. You’re now fifth on the list with 123 field goals. Your 576 points are still a bit shy of Jim Breech’s club record of 1,151.

EM: The longest-tenured guy was Breech. How long was Breech here? Ten years? Twelve years?

EM: And then Shayne was seven.  I always mess with Breech catching up to his all-time points record. Breech, I feel like he’s got a great head on his shoulders. I feel like to some people (records) mean a lot, but in the grand scheme of things they don’t mean anything. But it’s cool, don’t get me wrong. But in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t mean much, and I feel like that’s how Breech thinks about it.

Breech wants me to succeed, and I appreciate Breech. Even Shayne. I haven’t experienced any retired kickers wish anything bad or wish somebody doesn’t pass them. Breech and Shayne, have been both great for me just to get to know, and it’s been fun talking to them and just kind of hearing about their careers.

GH: Do you want to pass Breech?

EM: I would like to play as long as I can, as long as my body holds up, and if I could be a Cincinnati Bengal for my whole career, that would be ideal.

GH: And break Breech’s record?

EM: And break Breech’s record, we’ll see.​