Monday Cheese Curds: Packers kick off NFL dead period with uncertainty at kicker.
Monday Cheese Curds: Packers kick off NFL dead period with uncertainty at kicker.
The dust has settled and the final echoes of OTAs and minicamp have already receded into memory. The Green Bay Packers won’t recall players for training camp for several weeks. Just like that, we’ve arrived at the NFL dead period — that blurry summer zone where football news grinds to a halt, players go live actual lives, and we sickos twiddle our thumbs.
In this period where we must make meals of morsels, here’s a storyline to keep you satiated. While the Packers roster is mostly set already, there is one position battle that remains legitimately competitive: kicker.
Packers GM Brian Gutekunst took a relative gamble when he drafted Anders Carlson in the 6th round of the 2023 NFL Draft. Conventional wisdom says he likely felt the Packers were a year or two away from competitive playoff football, so drafting a project kicker with an injury history and an NFL pedigree perhaps felt like an acceptable risk. Ultimately, the young kicker’s inconsistency was one of the contributing factors to the team’s playoff exit in his rookie campaign.
But Gutekunst is not taking this lying down. With the Packers' roster development ahead of schedule, he’s brought in competition to try to get the best kicker on the field come the 2024 season. This isn’t the faux competitions of the Mason Crosby era. Veteran Kicker Greg Joseph represents the greatest threat to Carlson’s job security, but the young Jack Podlesny is also in the building.
It’s truly a may-the-best-boot-win situation. See? What NFL dead period? Kickers!
Packers Anders Carlson in a three-way kicking competition.
Three kickers at the same time, man.
Packers tried to add a FOURTH kicker to the mix.
If you have four kickers, maybe you don’t have one.
Greg Joseph says competition is “Me vs Me.”
Whatever you gotta tell yourself, man.
2 teens arrested after kicking in neighborhood doors for TikTok challenge.
Who said kicking isn’t a dangerous game?
Yellowstone tourist injured after kicking bison.
Sounds like he deserved it, TBH.