Not So Fast on Giving Crosby the Boot
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Three things are true regarding the Green Bay Packers and venerable kicker Mason Crosby.
One, he is coming off one of the worst years of his career.
Two, he will turn 38 just before the 2022 season starts.
Three, the Packers are well over the salary cap and releasing Crosby could help get the team in compliance.
That doesn’t necessarily mean a fourth thing – that Crosby will be released and there will be a changing of the guard at kicker – is going to be true.
On Wednesday, one day after signing kicker Dominik Eberle, general manager Brian Gutekunst spoke for more than an hour with reporters. Does the addition of a third kicker mean Crosby has attempted his last kick for the Packers?
“Oh, no, no no,” Gutekunst said. “No, no, no.”
Gutekunst chalked up Crosby’s problems to the problems on special teams as a whole. At the end of training camp, Gutekunst acquired punter Corey Bojorquez from the Rams, meaning a late change at holder. At midseason, Gutekunst released long snapper Hunter Bradley and replaced him with Steven Wirtel. There were continual issues with protection, starting with Crosby’s game-winning field goal at San Francisco in Week 3 and continuing with the killer block just before halftime of the playoff loss to San Francisco.
“Obviously, Mason had to adjust to a lot of the things that were happening with our special teams unit and the snappers and the new punter and holder,” Gutekunst said. “With those moving parts, he had to adjust and I thought he did a really nice job toward the end of the year. We’re in that offseason period where we get a chance to look at a lot of guys.”
That means three kickers on the roster. Crosby has been the team’s kicker since 2007 and is the franchise’s career scoring leader. JJ Molson, who made a 60-yard field goal during training camp last summer, spent his rookie season on the practice squad. Eberle, a native of Germany, had an excellent career at Utah State and kicked in one game last season.
As for Crosby, he missed two field goals in 2019 and zero in 2020 but nine in 2021, when he finished next-to-last in the NFL with a 73.5 percent success. The team has major cap issues and moving on from Crosby would save almost $2.4 million.
Crosby had a horrific season in 2012, when he made just 21-of-33 field goals. The Packers reworked his contract and he responded with a string of excellence seasons. That might be the route the team goes again.
“Mason, where our football team is, having a championship kind of kicker, a guy who can compete at that level is important,” Gutekunst said. “There will always be competition and everybody’s got to hold their own.
“We’ve got to make kicks but, at the same time, there was a lot of moving parts there.”
As for Eberle – aka “Das Boot” – he spent the 2020 season on the Raiders’ practice squad. New Packers special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia was their coordinator.
Said Gutekunst: “He had some experience with him and brought him to our attention as someone that we could look at through the spring.”
