It would be difficult to dispute that Mason Crosby had a bad year kicking field goals for the Green Bay Packers. Among kickers with at least 15 attempts, his 75% average field goal percentage (FG%) was better than only 6 other kickers in the NFL. Towards the end of the season, Crosby collected votes of confidence from Packers coaches like Ted Thompson collects wide receivers (more than should be necessary).
Despite his less than eventful 2009, Crosby somehow triggered incentives in his contract that has doubled his salary for 2010, from $500K to 1M. As Don King loves to say, God Bless America! And from Masons perspective, God Bless his agent. What a great contract he negotiated. His client can have a bad year and still manage to earn a 100% raise.
I can only sit and wonder what those incentives were? Did he have to
Finish higher than 30th in the league?
Hit 90% of his kicks into the practice net on the sideline?
Hit 95% of the footballs he swung his leg at?
Kick the ball with his right leg 95% of the time?
Never put his pants on backwards?
In all seriousness, when compared to the rest of the kickers in the league, Crosby is in the lower 20th percentile. In his 3 years with the Packers, he has never made more than 79.5% of his field goals. For a quick comparison, Ryan Longwell averaged 80%, 88%, 83% and 87% in his first four years with the Packers.
Ive always considered 80% to be the lowest field goal percentage an NFL team should tolerate. in my book, a FG% of less than 80% is like a batting average below .250 in baseball. Anyone can have a bad year, but 3 years in a row makes a bad career.
And yet, Crosby has his defenders. Mason Crosby will be fine, I hear over and over. He just has to work on the mental side, just has to straighten out the right hashmark issue, just needs a better holder, etc. My question for those people is, what evidence do you have that Mason Crosby is capable of being bettter than he has been? When has he shown that he can be an 85% kicker? NEVER, is the answer.
In the last three years, heres how many NFL kickers had a FG% of 85% or higher:
2007 16
2008 17
2009 11
Looking back at Crosbys career as a place kicker, starting with his senior year in High School, here are Crosbys FG%s:.
HSY4 63.6%
CY1 77.8%
CY2 82.6%
CY3 75.0%
CY4 67.9%
NFLY1 79.5%
NFLY2 79.4%
NFLY3 75.0%
Sophomore year in college was the only time Crosby has EVER broken 80%. So tell me, Crosby defenders, what makes you think he is just an adjustment away from even being a good NFL kicker?
Even before his poor 2009, I questioned why there was no competition brought in diring the 2009 training camp to push Crosby. As I wrote during the first week of camp, I feel Crosby is being given an undeserved pass and there should be another kicker in camp to push him, if nothing else. Yes, a little competition can be a great motivator. Instead, the Packers just handed the job to a kicker that finished in the bottom 20% of NFL kickers his first two seasons.
So what will happen in 2010? While there are a few unrestricted free agent kickers that would be an improvement over Crosby (Shayne Graham and Jay Feely, for example), they will both command higher salarys than even Crosbys 2010 overpaid $1M contract will provide. That, of course, makes it extremely unlikely that Ted Thompson will be calling their agents anytime soon.
Looking at the NFL draft, its not a strong year for placekickers. There arent any kickers that would warrant using anything other than a late 6th or 7th round pick. With Ted Thompson having used a 6th round pick just 3 years ago to select Crosby, I think its unlikely Ted Thompson would use another pick so soon on a kicker.
So, it appears a street free agent or an undrafted placekicker after the upcoming draft would be the most likely method Ted Thompson uses to bring in some competition for Crosby. But will he even do that?
When I called for some kicking competition for Crosby last year, some readers pointed out that most teams dont want to waste one of those 83 valuable training camp roster spots on a second kicker. Fair enough I say, but do the Packers really need to bring 11 wide receivers to camp like they did last year? Id would opt to go with 10 and bring someone in to give Crosby something to worry about. Maybe hell have the motivation to find that magic adjustment you Crosby defenders are waiting for. Imagine what hell make in incentives then