Gostkowski sailing through great season

He’s one of the only players in the New England locker room who appears to be a dead-solid lock for the Pro Bowl, but yesterday, with the media flocking to bigger names, he was able to slip in and out of the room almost completely unnoticed.

Kicker Stephen Gostkowski has compiled one of the finest half-seasons of any kicker in Patriots history. Through seven games, he’s tied for first in the AFC with 12 touchbacks, and is second in the conference in scoring among non-kickers with 63 points. Overall, Gostkowski is now 16-for-17 (94 percent) this season, and has made 23 of his last 24 kicks dating back to 2007. In addition, he’s a perfect 15-for-15 on extra points this season.

When you start handicapping which Patriots might be headed to Hawaii, you can make an argument for linebacker Adalius Thomas, nose tackle Vince Wilfork and wide receiver Wes Welker, but Gostkowski is likely the only lock to make the Pro Bowl. His prime competition for AFC kicker appears to be San Diego’s Nate Kaeding and Denver’s Matt Prater. Kaeding has more points (68 to 63), but a worse percentage on field goal attempts (94 to 83) and far fewer touchbacks than Gostkowski (12 to 7). Prater trails in points and percentage, but is tied with 12 touchbacks. Prater’s numbers can be partially attributed to the fact that he kicks in the thin air of Denver.

But Gostkowski is not interested in breaking down his numbers — not yet, anyway. In true Patriots fashion, he’ll take a look back at the end of the season.

“It’s not something I think about — I’m just happy we’ve won more games than we’ve lost,” Gostkowski said when asked about his success this season. “Anytime you can perform pretty good and help your team win, it’s an added bonus. But I don’t make any benchmarks or set any goals that I’m trying to reach. I just go into every game and try to make every kick and kick some good kickoffs.

“If I get caught up in numbers and who’s doing what and how I’m doing as compared to everyone else, it’s just one more thing to distract me from the game. I’ll look at my final performance at the end of the year and then look back at it. Right now, I’m just worried about kicking good [against] Indy.”

Taken in the fourth round of the 2006 draft, Gostkowski came into an almost impossible situation — he was The Man Who Replaced Adam Vinatieri. Vinatieri built his legendary career with the Patriots with a series of clutch postseason kicks that are familiar to any New England football fan, including game-winners in Super Bowl XXXVI and XXXVIII, before departing for Indianapolis via free agency.

But after Vinatieri left, the Patriots were able to keep an important part of their field goal unit, long snapper Lonie Paxton. Gostkowski said the lessons Paxton learned while working with Vinatieri have gone a long way toward his own success in New England.

“Lonie is the best snapper I’ve seen,” Gostkowski said. “He’s pinpoint, on the money. He takes his job seriously, and is good at what he does. He doesn’t read too much into it.

“Having a guy who has been there and snapped for a good kicker before, he’s been through different situations. It’s always good to have someone to lean on, show you the ropes. Having Lonie here is definitely beneficial for me. He still helps me out, day-to-day.”