NEWSLETTER
Since the Chicago Bears have yet to settle on a replacement for Cody Parkey and fans are likely sorting through things in search of a place-kicker option, I would like to offer up Gregg Rosenthal’s list of notable potential summertime roster cut or trade candidates as a place to begin.
Chris Boswell (Steelers) and Greg Joseph (Browns) are “names at risk of release” on Rosenthal’s list. Two years after making the Pro Bowl when he nailed 92.1 percent of his kicks (including all four of his tries from 50+ yards), Boswell finds himself in a camp battle with Matthew Wright in Pittsburgh. And then there is Joseph, who made 17 of 20 field goal tries for Cleveland last year and will square off against fifth-round draft pick Austin Seibert. But the biggest name Rosenthal offers up as someone who could be on the cut list happens to be a familiar one for Bears fans — Mason Crosby of the Green Bay Packers.
“Green Bay signed Sam Ficken to compete with Crosby in camp,” Rosenthal writes. “While Ficken is an underdog, this Packers staff doesn’t have the same loyalty to Crosby as the previous regime.”
Crosby has made 80.4 percent of his field goals and 98.0 percent of his extra-points. He was kicking at his peak from 2013-16, a four-year stretch in which he went 110-for-128 (85.9 percent) on field goals and missed just five extra points (97.2% PATs). Crosby hasn’t kicked at that level in the last two years, making just 80.4 percent of his attempts. If you factor in the two-year slide with the fact that Green Bay could create $3.6 million in cap savings if Crosby is released before the season, then you could comprehend why the incumbent kicker in Packerland is on this list in the first place.
Even though Crosby is a far less intriguing candidate than he would have been just two seasons ago, the Packers’ kicking situation is among those worth watching this summer — and not just because they’ll provide the competition for the 2019 season’s lid-lifter on September 5.
