16 Days Until Training Camp: Crosby Kicking Toward History

Assuming he keeps his job, longtime Green Bay Packers kicker Mason Crosby is racing toward some impressive NFL history.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Jul 11, 2022 9:23 AM EDT

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GREEN BAY, Wis. – In 2018, Mason Crosby made 30 field goals. If he does it again, the longtime Green Bay Packers kicker will make some significant history this season.

Crosby enters the season ranked 17th in NFL history with 370 field goals. He’s three field goals behind Hall of Famer Jan Stenerud, who spent four seasons with the Packers, for 16th all-time. He’s also 13 behind Nick Lowery for 15th place, 16 behind David Akers for 14th place and 22 behind Stephen Gostkowski for 13th place.

And what if he makes 30 field goals for the fourth time in his career? He would become the 12th kicker in NFL history to reach 400.

With 15 NFL seasons under his belt and a lot of kicks splitting those yellow posts, it stands to reason that Crosby ranks among the career leaders in scoring, too. He enters the season ranked 14th all-time with 1,806 points. Robbie Gould, who is still kicking, is 13th with 1,830 points, Dawson is 12th with 1,847, Gostkowski is 11th with 1,975 and Sebastian Janikowski is 10th with 1,913. So, with a typical Crosby season, he could end 2022 ranked 11th in NFL history.

Of course, all that experience means the white hair atop Crosby’s head has multiplied through the years. He will turn 38 just before Week 1.

“I feel really good right now,” Crosby said during OTAs. “It’s been reinvigorating with having a new guy in the building with Pat [O’Donnell, the new punter] and being able to feed off of him and how he operates and looking at some of the things that he does really well and trying to implement that into my routine, as well, on recovery and nutrition and stuff like that. That relationship has been awesome to keep my love of this and the energy up. I’m feeling good. Mentally and physically, just feeling like I’m hitting the ball well and trying to build it solidly to the season.”

Crosby, who made 22-of-24 field-goal attempts in 2019 and all 16 tries in 2020, is coming off one of the worst seasons of his career. His nine misses last season equal his total from 2018, 2019 and 2020. He will have to hold off rookie Gabe Brkic when training camp begins on July 27.

It’s not unfamiliar territory. Crosby was a woeful 21-of-33 on field goals in 2012, his 63.6 percent success rate being the worst in the NFL. That bad season, and how he bounced back from it with a string of excellent seasons, doesn’t mean a thing this time, he said.

“I’ve talked about it in the past,” he said. “I didn’t have a good year in 2012. From that moment on, I can’t re-create success. Stuff that happened in the past is not going to just automatically carry forward.”

Crosby is entering his final season under contract. Whether it’s in Green Bay or not, he could really make his mark on the NFL record book in 2023. With a couple more hundred-point seasons, he’ll become the eight player in NFL history with 2,000 career points.

And if you really want to think big, longtime Lions kicking star Jason Hanson is fourth all-time with 2,150 points. Crosby is just 344 points short of that. That’s three good seasons.

“Let’s keep plugging away,” Crosby said. “It’s always just trying to be really fully invested in that process. I’ve been on so many different teams, in a sense, where you’ve got a lot of turnover, you’ve got these new young guys coming in and all these different feels that you get. Just trying to reset each season and plug away.

“I will say, honestly, my career, it feels like little five-year blocks. It’s almost like I’ve had three small five-year careers. The first five was what it was, and there was some weird stuff in that second block but it ended well, and then this last little five of what that’s looked like. I compartmentalize it like that. It’s like, can I go another five? I’m kind of in that space right now where these next four or five years, what’s it going to look like? I’m just trying to build something great for this year so that I give myself that opportunity to keep pushing forward.”

Top Six Scorers in Packers History

Mason Crosby has set the bar in terms of scoring in Green Bay Packers history. He’s a whopping 752 points ahead of second-place Ryan Longwell and has more than doubled the scoring total of the legendary Don Hutson.

1. Mason Crosby: 1,806 points

Crosby led the NFL with 141 points as a rookie and has topped 100 points in 14 of his 15 seasons. If he hits his 120-point average, he’ll end the 2022 season with 1,926 points. Only 10 players in NFL history have scored more.

2. Ryan Longwell: 1,054 points

Longwell kicked for the Packers from 1997 through 2005. He topped 100 points in each of his first eight seasons. He closed his career by playing six years for the Vikings and is 20th in NFL history with 1,687 points.

3. Don Hutson: 825 points

Hutson was part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s inaugural class of 1963. You could argue no player dominated any sport like Hutson dominated the young NFL. When he retired, he had 99 receiving touchdowns – an incredible 63 more than anyone else. For more on Hutson, check out our recent story.

4. Chris Jacke: 820 points

Jacke kicked for the Packers from 1989 through 1996, his final season being the Super Bowl XXXI triumph. He was a first-team All-Pro in 1993, when he made 31-of-37 field-goal attempts – including 6-of-7 from 50-plus yards – and scored a career-high 128 points.

5. Paul Hornung: 760 points

The Hall of Famer played his entire career with the Packers, from 1957 through 1966 (with a one-year suspension for gambling in 1963). He led the NFL in scoring in 1959, 1960 and 1961. In 1960, he scored a then-record 176 points. More than 60 years later, that’s the second-most points in NFL history. LaDainian Tomlinson broke the mark with 186 points in 2006. Tomlinson played in 16 games; Hornung needed only 12.

6. Jim Taylor: 546 points

The Hall of Famer played for the Packers from 1958 through 1966 before finishing with the expansion Saints in 1967. He led the NFL with 16 touchdowns in 1961 and again with 19 touchdowns in 1962, when he won NFL MVP honors. Even today, he ranks 17th in NFL history with 83 career touchdowns.