It is no secret that Mason Crosby’s name has been floating around as a cap casualty and that has become more of a possibility with the tryout of former LSU kicker Cole Tracy. After somewhat of a down year from Crosby, he could soon be on the outside looking in. If Tracy proves to be as consistent as he was at LSU and Assumption College, where he played three of his four collegiate years, he will quickly make fans forget about Mason Crosby.
Reasons Tracy Could be the Kicker of the Future:
- Tracy has a career field goal percentage of 83%. Take out his poor sophomore season and that moves his field goal percentage to 90%.
- Tracy also boasts a 97% extra point percentage, although, college still uses the traditional extra point.
- Tracy will undoubtedly be cheaper, and if Gutekunst wants to sign other teams’ cap casualties, he will need more cap space to work with.
- Mason Crosby has never had a field goal percentage higher than 90% and only 6 of his 12 seasons above an 80%.
- The Packers currently have 2 kickers on the roster aside from Tracy, meaning the front office is looking to improve the position.
Reasons Tracy Will Not be the Kicker of the Future:
- College does not always translate to the NFL (i.e. Roberto Aguayo).
- Kicking at Lambeau Field in December is hard. Tracy played at LSU where it is warm. Assumption College is in Massachusetts, so hopefully he played in a few cold weather games.
- The last time Crosby struggled and competition was brought in, he followed it up with one of his best statistical seasons. Competition breeds excellence.
- Mason Crosby is clutch, no matter what Skip Bayless says.
Mason Crosby will always be a fan favorite despite his struggles. He represents the Packers and Green Bay well, and he is one of the only players left from the 2010 Super Bowl team. While it is unlikely that Crosby gets cut, it is still interesting to see Gutekunst bring in another kicker on top of the two already on the roster. Hopefully the competition is fun and eventually makes the team better for the foreseeable future.
11 responses to “Cole Tracy Over Mason Crosby?”
The fact is that Crosby is a below average NFL kicker. He was 23rd in FG% this season and 26th for career among ACTIVE kickers.
In my opinion, it is only fair to compare punters and kickers during the same game where conditions are the same.
The stats don’t support the “but he kicks in poor conditions” theory. He has kicked about the same at and on the road His career FG at home is 81% , on the road 82%. I can’t find FG for opponents at Lambeau, but can find opponents FB overall, they don’t seem to correlate with cold weather , outdoor teams.
Sorry should read “opponents FG % overall”
Green Bay is one of if not the toughest places to kick in due to weather conditions as alluded to in this article. I disagree based on this. He’s done well in clutch situations.
Really love Mason Crosby, he’s been an amazing solid kicker in the conditions he’s forced to play in. All time leading scorer, and best onside kicker in the NFL IMO. Willing tackler when special teams break down. Just by far my favorite kicker in 55 years of watching Packers football. Gee, lets cut a veteran Crosby, watch him go to a Cowboy’s, Vikings, some Dome team in the NFC and beat us for 5 more years? He’s a very good Specialist in GB. I’m fine with competition, but tread carefully, lets not forget the Jon Ryan debacle that crushed the punting game since his departure. Just saying… Seen so many teams struggling with the kicking game, please don’t mess this up. Better be flipping certain, and not like cutting Jon Ryan Certain..
Green Bay in December? Can be brutal. Mason has been very clutch for us. Bad games? For sure. But it may boil down to details in the execution of the kick. Mason would never throw another player under the bus; he take responsibility!
take away one season from the kid and he is all world?
Take away the Detroit game where Crosby had the wrong shoes on and his FG% goes to 91% for the season and his exp goes to 97%.
Top that kiddo.
I GUARANTEE you the Bears would be calling Crosby before he even cleaned out his locker. This is a tough call, especially after watching Carlson (Another LSU kicker) struggle in week 2 against the Packers and get cut the next day and Parkey last season with his double doinks (don’t ya love it). The grass isn’t always greener on the other side so Gute and MLF BETTER be damn careful about this. I know it’s not reasonable and would never happen but you almost want to bring in kickers to try out in December and if they can kick sign them for the following year.
Totally agree – I feel another Jon Ryan Debacle on the horizon.. This is stupid, he’s under contract, he’s kicking well enough, knows the stadium, kicks pretty danged well in key playoff kicks, just watched him bang thru that 48 yarder in Seattle in the 2014 NFC championship game to tie it with 19 seconds remaining, also beat Dallas in Dallas on back to back 50+ kicks a few years back. I just can’t see making this move, to much risk. I’d describe this as “The Devil you know”, vs the one you don’t. Man I hope they don’t screw this up.