Former Oklahoma Sooners kicker Gabe Brkic off to great start in Green Bay
I found myself in beautiful Green Bay, Wisconsin, for Packers training camp on Tuesday morning. I had but one mission: to see how former Sooners kicker Gabe Brkic was doing in his new surroundings.
I barely noticed a difference besides the new colors he was wearing. Brkic is off to a very good start in Green Bay, with none of the consistency issues that he had earlier this year in Minnesota. I didn’t see Brkic miss a single kick while I was at Ray Nitschke Field.
He also had a very solid day on Monday, according to The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman.
Gabe Brkic 3/3 on FGs from 45, 47 and 49 just now. Last year’s Lou Groza Award finalist from Oklahoma continuing to get work with Mason Crosby (knee) sidelined.
— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) August 1, 2022
There’s another interesting nugget in this situation: Packers legend Mason Crosby had surgery on his right knee–his kicking knee–during the offseason and isn’t practicing. Brkic has had all the kicking reps to himself.
Crosby will be 38 in September and is currently on the physically unable to perform list.
Here’s what our friends at Packers Wire had to say on the situation:
The injury is a concerning issue for an aging kicker – especially a right-legged kicker – coming off one of the worst seasons of his professional career. In 2021, Crosby missed nine field goals and finished with a field goal percentage of just 73.5, the second worst of his career.
Crosby is also going into the final year of his deal in 2022. He’ll make a base salary of $2.25 million, with a cap hit of $4.75 million. The Packers could save almost $2.4 million by moving on but would risk entering the 2022 season without an established kicker. – Zach Kruse, Packers Wire
The Packers had the worst special teams unit in the NFL last year and brought in former Raiders head coach Rich Bisaccia to clean it up. Crosby was a big part of that.
Green Bay will no doubt do right by their best kicker in team history, but if Brkic continues to impress during training camp and has a good preseason, Crosby could be out of a job.
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