Competition at kicker well underway for the Packers
After a rocky rookie season for Anders Carlson, the Green Bay Packers have added kickers Jack Podlesny and Greg Joseph to their roster since their 2023 season came to an end, and the competition is well underway.
“Just work. They’re all working every day,” said special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia. “One day we do two. The next day we do one. The next day we do two, then we do one. Then we flip it each week, so they’re going against each other really on a daily basis.
“It’s been a good competition. I think they’re all getting better. We were inside for the beginning part, so we’ve had some inside days. Now we’ve had like four days of outside. Hopefully, it’ll continue for a while.”
Playing at Georgia, Podlesny has plenty of big-game experience as a two-time National Champion. During his college career, Podlesny made 61-of-75 (81.3%) of his career kicks. This includes going 9-for-17 from 40-49 yards and 4-of-7 from 50-plus. In his final 2022 season, Podlesny went 26-for-31 overall and 3-of-8 from 40 or more yards.
Joseph, meanwhile, has spent the last three seasons in Minnesota. Over that span, Joseph made 82.2 percent of his 101 field goal attempts and 90.3 percent of his extra point attempts. From 40-49 yards he was 17-for-23 and 15-for-26 from 50-plus.
Competition has been a point of emphasis this offseason for GM Brian Gutekunst across the roster, but it was very much-needed at the kicker position.
However, competition doesn’t guarantee success either, as both Podlesny and Joshep come with question marks. Podlesny doesn’t have any experience kicking in the NFL and couldn’t stick on a roster last season. Joseph, meanwhile, has largely kicked indoors the last three seasons and struggled when he’s come to Green Bay.
“We’re just trying to get him to be a little bit better, right,” said Bisaccia about Joseph. “He’s been an indoor kicker now for a while, so being here is a little bit interesting. In our conversation with him, he hasn’t played well here, the two years I’ve been here. We blocked one, he missed one.
“So him playing in these conditions is a little bit different for him, as well. He’s got a tremendous leg. He’s got a great mindset. So, it’s been a good competition to this point. We expect it to stay that way for as long as Brian keeps three.”
Carlson’s missed field goal in the final minutes of the Packers’ divisional-round loss to San Francisco became the 10th time in 12 games that he had missed a kick, whether it be a field goal or an extra point.
After spending a sixth-round pick on Carlson last year, the Packers didn’t bring in any competition for him. They knew there would be a learning curve like there is for just about every young kicker, and they gave him the runway to navigate that–although my guess is that if GM Brian Gutekunst new during training camp how their season was going to end up, a different approach would have been taken.
This year, with there being clear Super Bowl aspirations, there isn’t leeway for Carlson to learn and improve on the fly. There have been countless instances where kickers have rebounded after poor starts to their careers, but if Carlson is going to be the Packers’ kicker in 2024, it’s going to be earned.
“I think it’s been good. I think it’s been good for all three,” said Bisaccia of the competition. “Body language is a big deal, and how you do react to certain situations. They’ve all gone, one day it’s been Jack and Anders. Then it’s been Greg and Anders. Then it’s been Jack and Greg. So we’re kind of doing it that way as well. Then the final part, we’ll try to go every single day. I don’t think we’ll kick them two days in a row, but there might be one where we get them two days in a row. We don’t usually do that.
“Right now they’ve gone through the same routine they’ve had in the offseason, every other day, we do it during the year. So I think the reactions have been good. It’s all on film. It’s all being graded. They know they’re in a competition. I think they can feel that amongst themselves every day in practice. It’s been good conversation with myself.”
Each year is different, and perhaps given the circumstances around the 2024 season, the Packers want as much competition as possible throughout the summer. But, for what it’s worth, in the past, Bisaccia has mentioned that getting three kickers reps during training camp can be challenging. So it’s possible that once OTAs are concluded, the Packers could release someone.
At this time, Bisaccia didn’t have that answer, but whatever route helps the Packers determine who the best possible option is at kicker come Week 1, that’s the path they’re going to go down. And perhaps that means adding someone else to the mix.
“I don’t know the answer to that. It might be those three. It might be three other ones,” said Bisaccia. “I don’t know. It might be six. We’re appreciative of certainly Brian getting it to the point where it’s at right now, having a three-man competition. We’ll see how long we can keep that going.
“Maybe the anticipation of even having, you know, there’s some things going on in a bunch of different leagues, right, that everyone’s about, so we’re going to keep investigating to try to end up with the best player we possibly can.”
