Grading the Packers: Specialists

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Player grades are a staple series of stories at the end of every NFL season. Ours are different, as we grade based on their impact relative to the salary cap. That’s because the cap is such a big part of building a roster. Not only must a team’s high-priced players deliver but it must have some of its less-expensive players outperform their contracts.

Generally, the Green Bay Packers got high marks from both groups in posting their third consecutive 13-win season. That obviously was not the case on special teams. That unit started slowly and never – despite former coordinator Maurice Drayton’s weekly bravado – got close to becoming an asset.

This series concludes with the specialists. All salary data is from OverTheCap.com.

Grading the Specialists

K Mason Crosby ($3.16 million cap charge; ranking No. 10 among kickers)

Crosby missed two field goals in 2019. He didn’t miss any in 2020. His red-hot kicking continued into the season at San Francisco in Week 3 with a 54-yarder in the first quarter and a 51-yarder to win the game.

But, with changes in the snapper-holder operation, Crosby went into a funk. He missed kicks because of bad snaps, holds and protection. When the operation improved, Crosby did not. Among kickers with at least 20 field-goal attempts, his 73.5 percent success rate was next-to-last in the league. Only his 2012 season was worse from an accuracy perspective. Due in part to age and late-season games in the cold, his touchback percentage on kickoffs ranked seventh from the bottom.

A restructured contract cut Crosby’s cap charge for 2021 but bumped it to $4.375 million for 2022. The Packers could move on and save $2.395 million for next season but incur dead-money charges through 2025. He’ll turn 38 just before the start of the season.

Grade: F.

P Corey Bojorquez ($1.02 million cap charge; ranking No. 19 among punters)

Acquired in a trade with the Rams after final cuts, Bojorquez ranked 11th with a 46.5-yard average and 17th with a 40.0-yard net average. His 82-yard punt at Chicago gave him the NFL’s longest punt for a second consecutive season. He had 18 punts inside the 20 with four touchbacks. Those were all improvements over the man he replaced, 2018 fifth-round pick JK Scott.

Still, his season seems like a disappointment because of how it ended. Starting with Week 6 at Chicago through Week 11 at Minnesota, Bojorquez had six consecutive games with net averages of at least 45.7 yards. In Week 12 against the Rams, he had a net average of only 39.8 yards because he had three punts inside the 20. It was a punting clinic. It all went off the rails in Week 14 against Chicago, with a four-game stretch with nets of 10.0, 42.0, 41.8 and 21.5 yards. Too many kicks either went straight down the middle of the field or were shanked out of bounds.

Punting is only part of the job. He’s also got to be a flawless holder for Crosby. There were some real struggles, though he was pretty solid down the stretch aside from a dropped hold in the bitter cold against Minnesota in Week 17.

Bojorquez will be an unrestricted free agent this coming offseason. With a league-best 50.8 average in 2020 and his mostly solid performance in 2021, he probably won’t be cheap.

Grade: C.

LS Steven Wirtel ($366,667 cap charge; ranking No. 33 among long snappers)

The Packers at midseason finally parted ways with 2018 seventh-round pick Hunter Bradley. Bradley was consistently inconsistent during his three-plus seasons but Wirtel wasn’t appreciably better. His snaps were never truly awful but the best snappers can spin it so perfectly that the holder doesn’t need to adjust the ball. He lacked that kind of precision. Wirtel got steam-rolled on the fateful blocked punt that doomed Green Bay in the playoff game.

Take them for what they’re worth, but Pro Football Focus grades long snappers. Bradley was the fourth-worst in the league and Wirtel was the third-worst.

The Packers don’t really have a problem finding long snappers. They’ve actually done well in that regard. They just have an impossible time in realizing they’ve found them. Five former Packers were full-time snappers this season. The Packers drafted Clark Harris (Bengals) in 2007, and signed J.J. Jansen (Panthers) in 2008, Rick Lovato (Eagles) in 2015, Taybor Pepper (49ers) twice in 2017 and Zach Triner (Buccaneers) in 2017 and training camp in 2018.

Grade: D.

Grading the Specialists

K Mason Crosby ($3.16 million cap charge; ranking No. 10 among kickers)

P Corey Bojorquez ($1.02 million cap charge; ranking No. 19 among punters)

LS Steven Wirtel ($366,667 cap charge; ranking No. 33 among long snappers)

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