Crosby Will Kick for Packers Against Vikings
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Mason Crosby is active and will handle kicking duties for the Green Bay Packers on Sunday at the Minnesota Vikings.
The 36-year-old Crosby (calf/back) didn’t practice on Wednesday or Thursday but did kick on Friday, when coach Matt LaFleur listed him as questionable.
“I think that kind of remains in balance at this moment,” LaFleur said after Friday’s practice.
The Packers have had kickers in town for most of the season to go through the COVID-19 testing regimen, just in case something happened to Crosby. This week, it was rookie Nick Vogel. However, the Packers didn’t sign Vogel on Saturday, signaling the team’s confidence that Crosby would feel up to the task upon arriving on Sunday.
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“I’m confident that Mason will be able to go,” special teams coordinator Shawn Mennenga said after Thursday’s practice.
Drafted by the Packers in 2007, Crosby hasn’t missed a game in his career. His streak of 214 consecutive games is almost as long as the next two kickers combined, with Baltimore’s Justin Tucker at 134 games and Detroit’s Matt Prater at 97.
Crosby is 9-for-9 on field goals this season. Only Miami’s Jason Sanders, who has made all 15 attempts, has more attempts among the kickers who haven’t misfired. Crosby missed one extra point and is sixth in the NFL with a touchdown rate of 76.9 percent on kickoffs.
Crosby’s availability no doubt put Mennenga’s mind at ease. On a blustery Sunday in which the flags atop the stadium are whipping and the uprights are shaking, having a different kicker – whether it was Vogel or punter JK Scott – would have been additional reason to worry.
“Obviously, sleep this time of year is pretty limited anyway,” he said. “We’re preparing for a bunch of different scenarios and going through a lot of different things and working guys in different things. We’re going to have a plan for whatever happens. We’ve got multiple plans going. Adding he wind into that is definitely going to be another challenge. I’m being cliché here, but you can only control what you can control and we’re trying to get as many guys ready as possible and just be as prepared as we can.”
Having made 22-of-24 field-goal attempts last season, Crosby’s 91.7 percent success rate was his first season of 90-plus percent. That made it the perfect timing to become a free agent for the first time in his career. Instead, just before the start of free agency, the Packers re-signed Crosby with a three-year deal worth $12.9 million.
Since his infamous five-miss game at Detroit in Week 5 of the 2018 season, Crosby has missed a total of six kicks in his last 29 games: 50-of-54 on field goals and 94-of-96 on extra points. That's six misses in his past 35 regular-season games.
