I’m a believer in the theory that it’s best to grab a kicker from one of the good teams. You win games by scoring points, and the teams scoring more points should tend to score more kicking points. But Mason Crosby has been a considerable outlier with this theory.
The Packers have won a league-high 39 games over the last three years – 13 wins in each of those seasons – but Crosby hadn’t been a notable kicker in any of them. There have been some accuracy issues, and there have been times that the offense has tended to produce touchdowns rather than field goal attempts, making him a modest score. As a team, Green Bay has ranked only 19th, 25th and 15th in kicking points the last three seasons.
The league moved to a 16-game season in 1978. Since that time, 84 times have won at least 13 games. Sixty of those teams ranked in the top 10 in kicker production. Only seven of those teams ranked 15th or lower, and Crosby fingerprint (toe prints?) are on almost half of those seasons.
Crosby is the only kicker who’s ranked in the bottom 10 in scoring (among kickers) for a team that won 13 regular-season games.
GOOD TEAM / BAD KICKER | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Team | Record | Points | Rk |
2020 | Green Bay | 13-3 | 107 | 25 |
2009 | Indianapolis | 14-2 | 98 | 22 |
2019 | Green Bay | 13-3 | 106 | 19 |
1999 | Tennessee | 13-3 | 106 | 19 |
1984 | Miami | 14-2 | 93 | 19 |
1995 | Kansas City | 13-3 | 106 | 18 |
2021 | Green Bay | 13-4 | 124 | 15 |
2021 | Tampa Bay | 13-4 | 131 | 14 |
1996 | Denver | 13-3 | 109 | 14 |
1984 | Denver | 13-3 | 101 | 14 |
2017 | Philadelphia | 13-3 | 127 | 13 |
2001 | Chicago | 13-3 | 112 | 13 |
2005 | Seattle | 13-3 | 110 | 13 |
2003 | Kansas City | 13-3 | 106 | 13 |
1994 | San Francisco | 13-3 | 105 | 12 |
1990 | NY Giants | 13-3 | 101 | 12 |
1981 | San Francisco | 13-3 | 99 | 12 |
2017 | Minnesota | 13-3 | 130 | 11 |
2020 | Kansas City | 14-2 | 123 | 11 |
2000 | Tennessee | 13-3 | 118 | 11 |
1996 | Green Bay | 13-3 | 114 | 11 |
1997 | Kansas City | 13-3 | 113 | 11 |
2003 | New England | 14-2 | 112 | 11 |
1978 | Pittsburgh | 14-2 | 80 | 11 |
—Ian Allan