Unlike last season, when the position was given to rookie Anders Carlson, the Green Bay Packers are currently in fierce competition at kicker.
The team was second to none in 2023, and the sixth-round pick was a slam dunk. On the surface, Carlson had a solid regular season in which he made 27 of 33 field goal attempts (81.8 percent). By comparison, Mason Crosby, who kicked for 16 seasons in Green Bay and is the team’s all-time leading scorer, completed 79.5 percent of his kicks as a rookie.
Unfortunately, Carlson had some scratchy moments as he led the NFL with four missed extra points and also missed nine of the last 12 games, including the playoffs. The dagger came when he missed a crucial 41-yard field goal in the fourth quarter of a three-point loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round. Despite his struggles, the team failed to acquire a legitimate competitor for Carlson.
That changed this year when the Packers added former Georgia kicker Jack Podlesny and veteran Greg Joseph. Now the training field has turned into a battlefield.
Of course, kicking in training and kicking in a real match are completely different things. Testing a kicker under pressure is crucial to game reliability, but reproducing that pressure in practice is virtually impossible. But that doesn’t stop the Packers from trying again.
During Tuesday’s OTA practice, players were allowed to distract kickers as they attempted to make the final field goal of the day. Many of them screamed, waved their arms, and some even poured water on themselves.
Both Podlesny and Joseph missed their 53-yard attempts. Carlson did his thing and was mobbed by his teammates as they celebrated.
“Just make it as difficult as possible for the kickers,” Matt LaFleur said of their unique approach to upping the ante for kickers in practice. “We want to put them in quite an uncomfortable situation. I would say it’s quite an uncomfortable situation. You won’t get a whole team around you anywhere in football, but just try to boost that level of pressure. It was good to see the last one go through the posts.
Overall on Tuesday, Carlson was 3 of 3 on attempts of at least 50 yards. During last week’s practice, he was 6 of 7 on attempts from 40-51 yards. So far, LaFleur has been pleased with how Carlson and all the kickers have responded to the competition.
“There were a lot of good moments,” LaFleur said. “As I mentioned earlier, the only thing that matters is consistency every day. I think all of these guys had their moments where they kind of won. It’s a tough fight.”
