Stephen Gostkowski Sets Patriots Record for Most Consecutive Field Goals

Stephen Gostkowski continues to establish himself as one of the best kickers in NFL history.

The New England Patriots' all-time leading scorer set a new franchise record Thursday with his 26th consecutive made field goal, per ESPN.com's Mike Reiss.

Gostkowski made a 36-yard field goal in the third quarter against the Miami Dolphins, breaking the record set by Patriots legend Adam Vinatieri, who has been a member of the Indianapolis Colts since 2006, the same year Gostkowski was drafted by New England.

The former fourth-round pick has converted 87.5 percent of his attempts in the regular season, which is also the highest rate in Patriots history. Gostkowski has been able to obtain this record through both power and accuracy. He tied his career long with a 57-yard field goal Oct. 11 against the Dallas Cowboys and booted a 52-yard field goal Thursday night to tie Vinatieri's record.

SB Nation's Joon Lee provided a clip of Gostkowski's 52-yard field goal, which looked like a knuckleball coming off his foot:

With his two makes against the Dolphins, Gostkowski is now 17-of-17 on field-goal attempts and has 79 points through seven games this year.

Those numbers indicate that Gostkowski has been nothing but reliable since the Patriots took a chance on him in the 2006 NFL draft, and he's been getting better with age. In the last two-and-a-half years, Gostkowski has attempted 95 field goals and missed only five. To put that into perspective, he missed six field-goal attempts in 2012.

Michael Whitmer of the Boston Globe gave an idea as to how valuable the Pats kicker is.

"The extra point has been pushed back 13 yards," Whitmer said. "So far this season, 18 extra points have been missed, in addition to 51 field-goal attempts. Gostkowski isn’t on either list, one of seven kickers in the league without a miss."

At only 31 years old, Gostkowski is already halfway to Morten Andersen's all-time record of 2,544 points. If he continues at this pace, which seems likely at this point, Gostkowski could be the NFL's new points leader by the time his career is up. He's that talented and productive.