Packers Free Agents Stay or Go: Mason Crosby

Should the Green Bay Packers re-sign Mason Crosby or let him go? We deliver the pros and cons in Part 4 of this series on the Packers’ 2023 free agents.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Feb 22, 2023 5:16 PM EST

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers have 14 players who are scheduled to be unrestricted free agents this offseason, including kicker Mason Crosby.

Going in alphabetical order, our “Stay or Go” series will look at each of those players in advance of the official start of free agency on March 15. Why should the Packers re-sign Crosby? Why should they let him go? Is there a replacement on the roster? Could they get a compensatory draft pick in exchange?

Packers Should Re-Sign Mason Crosby

Crosby ranked 15th in the NFL with 86.2 percent accuracy on field goals, finishing the season with 25 conversions out of 29 attempts. Three of the misses were from 50-plus yards and the other was blocked. Questions about his leg strength? He made a 56-yarder through the January cold at the end of the first half against Minnesota.

Kicking in Lambeau Field at the end of the season is no joke. In January home games (regular season and playoffs), Crosby is 27-of-30. That 90.0 percent success rate significantly better than his career mark of 81.4 percent. Opposing kickers made 27-of-36, or 75.0 percent. That is an enormous difference.

To state the obvious, you can’t afford to blow scoring opportunities in playoff games. Who do you want lining up to a kick a 45-yarder with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line and 78,000 fans at Lambeau Field rising in anticipation? Crosby or Joe Rookie?

Packers Should Let Crosby Sign Elsewhere

Crosby will turn 39 just before the start of the regular season. Age might not impact a kicker’s accuracy but it does impact his leg. That showed up on kickoffs.

According to PFF, 32 kickers had at least 40 kickoffs. Crosby ranked last in average distance by 2.1 yards. That would be fine if his short kicks were strategic and filled with hangtime. That wasn’t the case, though. His average hangtime of 3.59 seconds also ranked last – by a resounding 0.25 seconds. For context, 0.25 seconds separated the kicker who ranked first in hangtime with the kicker who ranked 22nd. According to league data, he ranked last in touchback percentage at 20.3; the second-to-last kicker had a touchback rate of 42.0 percent.

Who Would Replace Crosby?

Right now, there’s only one kicker under contract. That’s Parker White, who made 16-of-17 field goals as a senior at South Carolina in 2021. He tried out for the Packers during training camp but didn’t get any other opportunities. They signed him to a futures contract last month. There’s no way the Packers are going into their offseason practices with only White under contract.

Could the Packers Gain a Compensatory Draft Pick for Crosby?

Perhaps but probably not. Compensatory picks mostly are based on average annual salary. Greg Zuerlein (from the Rams to the Cowboys) and Matt Prater (from the Lions to the Cardinals) have signed comp-worthy contracts the past couple offseason but both kickers were younger with bigger legs.

The Verdict on Mason Crosby

Crosby’s future in Green Bay might hinge on Aaron Rodgers’ future. If Rodgers returns, the Packers obviously will do everything in their power from a personnel perspective to make a run at the Super Bowl. Going back to Crosby’s Lambeau Field history, could the Packers really roll the dice on an unproven kicker without him having to knock off Crosby in training camp?

If the Packers go with a younger quarterback, they’ll probably go with a younger kicker, too.

If Crosby has made his last field goal with the Packers, it will have been an absolutely dumbfounding career. In 16 seasons, he scored 1,918 points. That’s a franchise record that might never be broken. The next two players on Green Bay’s career list, Ryan Longwell and Don Hutson, combined for 1,879. His 395 field goals are almost as many as the combined 399 by Longwell and Chris Jacke.