The Green Bay Packers are going into the 2024 season with championship aspirations. That is fairly impressive itself given they traded away one of their best players in franchise history just over one calendar year ago.
Championship aspirations means they’ll look to find the best man for the job at each position.
Green Bay Packers Starter Comments On Competition Being Signed At His Position
The Green Bay Packers’ three-man kicking battle doesn’t bother Anders Carlson, who is coming off an up and down rookie season:
“I think it’s something you embrace,” he said at Packers OTAs on Tuesday. “When you’re in the NFL, you’re going to compete. Whether you see people in your building or not, it’s a competitive business. So, it’s all about staying in your own lane and being a good teammate and just trying to be the best.”
“It is business like usual,” Carlson said. “The mindset doesn’t change, whether it’s zero guys or 10 guys here. Kicking is unique because you can focus on yourself. You don’t have to pass it to anyone else. It’s you and the field goal posts. It’s really that focus on yourself and that’s the mindset right now.”
As a sixth-round draft pick last year, Carlson was given a free pass by general manager Brian Gutekunst. After choosing not to re-sign franchise career scoring leader Mason Crosby, the Packers signed Parker White at the end of the 2022 season but released him after a couple weeks of OTAs.
That was it for Carlson. Even as he got into a miss-a-game rut that lasted through the season-ending loss at San Francisco, the Packers didn’t bring in a challenger.
Now, he has two. One is a veteran, Greg Joseph, who was the Vikings’ kicker the last three seasons. The other is Jack Podlesny, an undrafted free agent in 2023 who Joseph dispatched halfway through Vikings training camp last summer.
Jordan Love was the only man who could’ve saved us, thanks Anders Carlson nepo baby. pic.twitter.com/Mfmc8ai2SS
— scuseme (@agayeyou) February 12, 2024
Will Anders Carlson Be The Kicker For The 2024 Season?
In his rookie season, Carlson made 27 of 33 field goals and 34 of 39 extra points. He finished 23rd in field-goal percentage (81.8) and next-to-last in extra-point percentage (87.2) among kickers with more than 20 attempts. A league high 11 missed kicks were recorded by him.
The first five games of the season, Carlson made every kick. Despite that, he missed at least one kick eight of the final 10 regular-season games and two of the playoff games.
As long as Carlson was focused on the next kick or the next game, he could reset his mindset. That wasn’t the case after his critical miss against San Francisco. With 6:21 left in the game, his field goal attempt sailed wide left. A make would have increased the Packers’ lead to 24-17.
However, Mason Crosby became the starter for the Packers during the 2007 season. It wasn’t until 2011 that he made more than 80% of his field goals in one season. The Packers will bring in competition for sure, but they’ll likely role with Carlson for a few seasons, at least.
