One of the most intriguing positional battles of Green Bay Packers training camp is the competition for who will be the team’s kicker during the 2024 NFL season. Second-year player Anders Carlson is the incumbent, but former Minnesota Vikings kicker Greg Joseph has proved to be a serious threat to taking the job for himself.
Of course, this competition is only taking place because Green Bay elected to move on from Mason Crosby at the end of the 2022 NFL season. The franchise’s all-time leading scorer, Crosby made 86.2% of his field goal tries and 94.9% of his extra point attempts in his final season.
Those are not necessarily great numbers, but the 2023 Packers sure might wish that they had gotten that kind of production out of Carlson.
Green Bay Packers Kicker Anders Carlson Struggled as a Rookie in 2023
Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin.
The Packers went through a major youth movement on their roster ahead of the 2023 NFL season. The biggest part of this was trading four-time NFL MVP and future Pro Football Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers to the New York Jets in order to allow Jordan Love to take over as the starting quarterback.
But while Love proved to be a more-than-adequate replacement for Rodgers, Carlson was far from being anywhere near where the Packers wanted him to be. The former Auburn kicker made 81.8% of his field goals, but only 87.2% of his extra points.
There was a stretch of the 2023 season that saw Carlson miss at least one kick in 10 out of 12 games, including each of Green Bay’s postseason contests.
In other words, he was nowhere near as good as he needed to be. For a team with Super Bowl aspiration, the kicker cannot be unreliable. Missing an extra point or two in a season can happen. Missing five of them cannot.
Green Bay Packers Kicker Anders Carlson Had a Slightly Better Day Than Greg Joseph on Wednesday
Tork Mason/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
Both Carlson and Joseph were performing well during offseason activities and the early days of training camp. Indeed, they seemed to be neck-and-neck.
However, a horrendous day from Carlson gave Joseph a slight edge. Both kickers were given multiple opportunities in Green Bay’s first preseason game against the Cleveland Browns, and both made all their kicks.
However, on Wednesday, both kickers had a bad day. Carlson just happened to have a slightly less bad day. He made four of his six kicks while Joseph made just three of seven.
Greg Joseph went 3/7 today and Anders Carlson 4/6. For camp, I have Joseph at 50/61 (82%) and Carlson at 49/61 (80.3%) with the preseason opener included.
— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) August 14, 2024
As one can see, Joseph now has made just one more kick than Carlson during camp. Neither kicker really inspires very much confidence at this point, leaving many fans to wonder if the Packers’ 2024 kicker is even on the roster yet.
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