To Replace Crosby, Carlson Has to Battle ‘NFL Monster’

Esteemed kicking coach Jamie Kohl has helped numerous players reach the NFL. His latest: Green Bay Packers sixth-round pick Anders Carlson.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
May 10, 2023 9:17 AM EDT

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – It takes a minute to scroll through all the Kohl’s Kicking Camps alumni to have reached the NFL. Add kicker Anders Carlson, a sixth-round pick by the Green Bay Packers in the 2023 NFL Draft, to the extensive list.

“I’m excited for Anders,” said Jamie Kohl, who helped start Kohl’s Kicking Camps in 2000. “Hopefully, he can live up to a little bit of what Mason was able to do over a long period of time.”

Mason, of course, is Mason Crosby. A sixth-round pick by the Packers in 2007, Crosby is the franchise’s all-time scoring leader by an enormous margin; he scored almost as many points as the next two players, Ryan Longwell and Don Hutson, combined.

But with the Packers starting anew with Jordan Love at quarterback, they’re also starting over at kicker. Crosby, who will turn 39 just before the start of the season, remains unsigned. Carlson and Parker White, who went undrafted in 2022, are the kickers on the 90-man roster.

If declining leg strength is why Crosby wasn’t re-signed, ascending leg strength is why Carlson was drafted.

“One thing I can say about Anders is we had all the top guys this year and Anders’ field-goal range is really outstanding,” Kohl said. “He has a strong leg, which is part of the reason why Rich (Bisaccia) wanted to bring him up to Green Bay.

“A lot of times throughout the season, the ball’s not going to carry real well. If you remember a young Mason Crosby, he had one of the strongest legs in the NFL for many years. That’s part of the reason why he was able to play so long is because, even as an older player, he still had a good leg. Now, that’s one component, obviously, and it’s an important one in places like Green Bay.

“To have long-term, sustained success, you’ve got to have a good leg and you’ve got to be able to kick in cold weather. Anders has the body, he has the frame to continue to get stronger in years to come.”

Anders Carlson at the Scouting Combine (USA Today Sports Images)

Carlson tore the ACL in his left knee late in the 2021 season but was back on the field – with a brace on his plant leg – in 2022. He made 12-of-17 field-goal attempts, just 70.6 percent, but improved under Kohl’s tutelage enough to impress scouts during the predraft process.

In five seasons at Auburn, he converted 71.8 percent of his field goals. That’s not very good, though he was 20-of-22 (90.9 percent) in 2020. For his career, he was 34-of-34 from inside of 30 yards, 15-of-20 (75.0 percent) from 30 to 39 yards, 25-of-39 (64.1 percent) from 40-49 yards and 5-of-17 (29.4 percent) from 50-plus yards.

“What I saw this winter was much better than he had produced in the months after the ACL.,” Kohl said. “It’s tough coming off that injury. It takes generally a year or two sometimes to fully recover. What he produced not only for me but for other NFL coaches at the Combine leads a lot of those people to believe he can back to 100 percent and chase what his brother [All-Pro Daniel Carlson] has accomplished.”

It’s tough to replace a legend. That’s what Love will be tasked with doing as he steps in for Aaron Rodgers. It will be a similar situation for Carlson while replacing Crosby, who ranks 11th in NFL history in scoring.

A pressure cooker awaits. Kohl knows a little something about that. In 2019, following their infamous double-doink playoff loss to the Eagles, the Bears hired Kohl as a full-time kicking consultant.

“The whole city was focused on the frickin’ kicking game after that double doink,” Kohl recalled. “There’d be 40 news reporters to track the kicks and videotape the guys and chart the guys. It became a spectacle. Really, what it forced me to do was really focus on our operation – our snap, our hold – some of the nuances, the mental, the breathing to eliminate as much of the distraction as we could. If we let it, they were going to eat us up.”

It will be no different in Green Bay, where reporters tracked Crosby’s every kick throughout training camp.

With all eyes on the kickers, the Packers might have the right pieces in place to help Carlson thrive rather than survive. Punter/holder Pat O’Donnell was on those Chicago teams. Plus, the venerable Bisaccia knows Carlson through his work with older brother Daniel from their time together with the Raiders. Daniel Carlson bombed as a rookie fifth-round pick with the Vikings in 2018 but connected with Kohl to put together three consecutive seasons of 90-plus percent.

Carlson has the leg. But so much of kicking is what’s between the ears. It’s a lonely position, especially during the tough times. And, more likely than not, there will be tough times. Over the last five years, only two of eight drafted kickers made 85.0 percent of their field goals as rookies. For reference, Crosby was a middle-of-the-pack 15th at 86.2 percent last year.

“When they’re out there and the whole world is watching and it’s just them and they have to perform, that’s going to come down to who that individual is as a person,” Kohl said. “Sometimes, experiencing crap can help you become a better player if you can make it through the storm.

“When the NFL monster comes to you, how are you going to handle a negative performance? Some people will bounce back and do better and get better and thrive, and others will allow the voices to continue to multiply and then they get eaten up and they’re out of a job. I think Anders has a lot of talent. He’s got a chance because of the people around him. He’s going to have a couple bad practices, I’m sure, but you’ve got to respond. That’s where Mason Crosby, that Cowboys game a couple years back, that’s still one of the best games I’ve ever witnessed. Every time he had a chance, he came through like nails.

“It’s going to take some time. If he can make it through the early storm, he’s got a chance to be a really good player. Really good player.”