The Green Bay Packers played a football game on Sunday night.
And of all the games the venerable franchise played, this was certainly one of them.
Sitting 31 players, the Packers opposite-of-built on their poor practice with the Broncos by playing largely abysmal football. Granted, it was backups versus Denver’s starters for most of the game, and Sean Payton treated the outing like the Super Bowl more than a preseason game. Still, you’d like to see much better from a team with hopes of claiming the NFC.
Despite the terrible game, it’s not all doom and gloom for the Packers. If a meteor attack wipes out Green Bay’s starting players, I’ll be very worried about their success. You’d like to see more grit even in an exhibition game, but it’s not worth panicking yet.
However, the game did highlight an area of concern that could carry into the regular season even if the starters aren’t wiped out in a Thanos-level event. Greg Joseph‘s missed 47-yard field goal attempt in Denver highlighted that the kicking competition is far from over. None of Green Bay’s kickers are standing out in a good way, and it’s time to wonder if a veteran outside hire is necessary.
The Packers have three kickers on the roster: Anders Carlson, Greg Joseph, and Alex Hale, who replaced James Turner as the third kicker.
By Family Night, it looked like the veteran Joseph was pulling ahead. However, that no longer appears to be the case.
Joseph ended a solid streak during Family Night by missing two field goals. He hasn’t been consistent since, including his miss in Denver.
Carlson and Joseph were productive in Cleveland. Carlson made both of his field goal attempts, 46 and 33 yards, respectively. Joseph made his 35-yard attempt. Each made their extra point attempt, and both were effective on kickoffs under the new rules.
Still, as of Sunday night’s loss, the totals look like this:
- Joseph: 52 of 64 (81.25%)
- Carlson: 50 of 62 (80.6%)
- Hale: 11 of 16 (68.8%)
Not great, Bob!
It’s worth noting these totals include a dreadful day kicking in the irregularly harsh wind, where no kicker succeeded. These conditions likely wouldn’t occur in a real game, and if they did, the team probably wouldn’t choose to kick the ball. Even removing that day, the percentages aren’t great.
The gap between Joseph and Carlson is closing, but not in a good way. Compared to the kicking stats from last season, both kickers would be in the lower 20s in the overall rankings. Joseph is doing slightly better than his 80% from last season, while Carlson’s 81.8% last season was marginally better than his current rate.
Low special teams numbers might be commonplace in Green Bay, but they’ve at least had reliable kicking through most of the last decade-plus. The team needs more from its kickers.
Hale isn’t bringing much to the competition and can’t be considered more than a camp leg at this time.
With things this close in a vacuum, you’d hand the job to Carlson. He’s a draft pick chosen by the general manager and coaching staff to be the heir to Mason Crosby and has a higher ceiling than Joseph. If the battle is that close, go with the younger player with room for growth. That’s been Green Bay’s M.O., and it stands to reason that they’d take the same approach at kicker.
However, kickers stand alone and regularly determine the fate of games. I’d personally lean Carlson over Joseph at this point, but do you explicitly trust either to close out a tough game?
It’s not just field goals, either. With the new kickoff rules, you also need excellence in that area. NFL EVP Jeff Miller said teams have returned more kickoffs this year, and the average offensive drive starts in a better position than last year. Teams need a good kickoff specialist to set the offense up for success.
The Packers must seriously consider looking around the league for their Week 1 kicker. Despite the team’s strong finish last season, they are a young team in need of every advantage. Multiple teams have two kickers in similar battles or are releasing kickers. While they might not have won the battle with their current team, they can still be a reliable upgrade over Green Bay’s current options. AtoZ Sports’ Wendell Ferreira laid out a list of kickers to watch between now and Week 1.
Carlson and Joseph have one more week of practice and a preseason game to take control of the job. And it’s worth noting that Carlson has been fine in an actual game setting. Seeing the second-year kicker bounce back and truly earn the job would be fantastic.
However, the battle hasn’t been trending in an inspiring way, and the Packers need to consider a full-measure solution. Week 1’s kicker might not be on the roster, and Green Bay can’t be afraid to make that tough decision, even if it means losing on their developmental kicker.
