Packers Sign New Kicker With Powerful Leg
GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers have a new kicker. According to agent Paul Sheehy, they signed Ramiz Ahmed.
Ahmed spent part of training camp with the Chicago Bears in 2020. In 2022, he was drafted by the Pittsburgh Maulers of the USFL. In Week 8, he made a league-record 61-yard field goal.
While Ahmed has a huge leg, he’s not exactly accurate. In 10 games with the Maulers, Ahmed made 14-of-22 field goals (64.0 percent) and 7-of-10 point-after tries (70.0 percent). He also threw a touchdown pass.
Veteran Mason Crosby is coming back from offseason knee surgery. He recently started kicking a soccer ball at practice but remains on the physically unable to perform list. In his place, rookie Gabe Brkic struggled throughout camp and shanked a 32-yard field-goal attempt at San Francisco on Friday night.
Brkic “tweaked” a hamstring in pregame warmups, coach Matt LaFleur said before Sunday's practice, an injury that necessitated the addition of Ahmed. He is being waived/injured, according to a source.
As a senior at Nevada in 2018, Ahmed made 15-of-20 field-goal attempts with a long of 50 yards. On kickoffs, 47 of 78 were touchbacks.
A Las Vegas native, Ahmed attended UNLV and Arizona State but never played. He enrolled at Nevada and got his shot after a student tryout just before the start of the 2017 season.
“Coach (Ryne) Rezac says, ‘We’ve got a guy who is a pretty good kicker,’” coach Jay Novell said at the time. “I said, ‘Really, let’s take a look at him.’”
Ahmed is the fourth kicker to have joined Crosby. The offseason started with J.J. Molson and Dominik Eberle before the team settled on Brkic – the former Oklahoma star – to provide some competition.
“I feel like our plan and the process that we’ve been going through so far is really good, so I’m feeling stronger every day,” Crosby said early in camp. “I’m feeling like I’m moving in the right direction. So, obviously, Week 1 is the most important thing, but I’m pushing and staying on a really good regimen so we don’t have any setbacks, we don’t have any things where we’re like, ‘Oh, he doesn’t feel good,’ and we’re having to push through that. So, the plan is to be ready for Week 1, but start progressing in the next couple weeks or so.”
