I'm still a Crosby defender and I have no idea why I am so invested with him getting his head on straight. I don't know what can help him thought. He seems to have the weight of the world on his shoulders. Maybe he needs to take a vacation with Rodgers and Tauscher. Are you aware if he has any friends on the team? What clique would he belong to?

All I can say is that if he can't kick over 80% this season, we should definitely try and trade him for at least a 5th round pick.

I knew I should have paid Al more.

Next to Colledge's attitude I think Crosby is the biggest enigma on the team. I think we all remember that magical 2007 season where he was the highest scoring player in the NFL and nearly made it into the pro bowl. What happened since then???

Well, as the Chief excuse-maker for Crosby I'd like to share a counter point.

Kickers need consistency to be consistent.

And Mason has had 3 different snappers, 3 different holders and 2 different ST coaches in his short tenure in GB. Longwell himself publicly lamented issues with the holder when he missed too, Crosby has taken it all on himself to date.

I also like to note that his HC has full confidence in calling on him to make long FGs, and to call for a high- risk onsides kick in a crucial playoff game at AZ.

That speaks volumes.

Mason is a self- motivated hard working professional and having a camp leg to push him might make some fans feel good.
But no camp leg is going to beat him out and any time he spends "worrying" about the competition is time taken away from the task at hand of improving his success rate.
The mental part of kicking is the biggest hurdle and the yet solution offered in the article is to "add something else for Mason to worry about ?"

Bring in all the camp legs you like, Crosby is your kicker in 2010.

Personally, I'd like to see a better approach from the ST coaches than last years' suggestion of "call around to other kickers and see how they fix it"

Mason clearly needs to improve his FG success rate and length isn't the issue, aim is. If you think bringing in a camp leg is the way to fix that then by all means do so. But that camp leg is gone by the time the season starts.

Then what are you gonna do ?

Competition is at the heart of the way the front office builds this team and indeed kicker is no different.
I just don't believe that a lack of competition is the reason for Crosby's struggles or the solution to it.
Here's hoping they find a solution, however they do it, because ST improvement was one of MMs offseason "keys to success for 2010".

I was playing with the stats a little bit in Excel and found that if you take out his 50+ yard field goal attempts, Crosby's success rate improves to 83%. Comparing Crosby to other kickers with at least 15 attempts, using this same statistic, places him at 19th in the league. Basically, he's well within the margin of error for being an average NFL kicker.

What this says to me is that the coaches need to fall out of love with his leg strength and realize that his range is limited. If the Packers can do that, then he won't have as many misses, which could allow him to get some confidence back, and maybe even improve on that average. This also tells me that the coaches don't necessarily need to rush to make an improvement, but shouldn't refrain from accepting the opportunity to do so.

I don't like Crosby anymore, but I think the situation with having a new holder is what is problem is.
My main problem is that he's not money when the game is on the line. He's a good kicker, but he's not clutch. Cost us two games in '08, iirc.

You know,

I hate the bayurz as much as I love the GBP. But, every time I see Gould split the uprights IN THE COLD, I get envious. That's the only thing from that P.O.S. franchise that I would take.

Why does it have to be so hard to have RESPECTABLE ST's?

Not the best mind you, just... RESPECTABLE.

I mean we are a SOLID punter and a 80% F.G. kicker away from being a team that is to be RECKONED with EVERY week.

With the spotty/shoddy ST (and I use this term loosely "specialist") we have, we are always an "off the side of his foot" punt or a "wide right" field goal away from being CONSISTENT.

I've got no reason to believe that will change any time soon.

Gets old.

GBP 4 LIFE

Almost forgot... Happy Saint Fitzpatrick's Day. WOOT!!!

Thanks Aaron. I wish I had seen this sooner, but work has kept me hopping this week, with all the power outages and whatnot. Anyway, in a discussion with Satori (who I give credit to for admitting his Crosby apologist stance) on TALKinPACKERS forum. He basically said that Crosby's stats are hindered have been hindered by cold weather kicking and the fact he is asked to kick long field goals.

So I dug a little deeper and came up with these gems:

Cold weather and being asked to kick more long field goals are definitely factors that will affect a kicker's overall average. Nobody can dispute that.

But other kickers have to kick in cold weather and they have performed much better than Crosby. Reed, Akers, Dawson, Gould, Prater, Lindell Tynes, Gostkowski, Feely, Graham - all better than Crosby. Out of these 10 cold weather kickers, 7 have better percentages from 50+ yards than Crosby. and all 10 have better percentages from 40-49 yards. This is all on NFL.com stats page.

It seems pretty clear to me. Crosby pales compared to his peers, even under the conditions people love to use as excuses for his performance.

Crosby is absolutely terrible. If TT doesn't bring in competition for Crosby, and he continues to miss easy kicks, I'm going to be pissed.