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
YearTeamRecordPointsRk
2020Green Bay13-310725
2009Indianapolis14-29822
2019Green Bay13-310619
1999Tennessee13-310619
1984Miami14-29319
1995Kansas City13-310618
2021Green Bay13-412415
2021Tampa Bay13-413114
1996Denver13-310914
1984Denver13-310114
2017Philadelphia13-312713
2001Chicago13-311213
2005Seattle13-311013
2003Kansas City13-310613
1994San Francisco13-310512
1990NY Giants13-310112
1981San Francisco13-39912
2017Minnesota13-313011
2020Kansas City14-212311
2000Tennessee13-311811
1996Green Bay13-311411
1997Kansas City13-311311
2003New England14-211211
1978Pittsburgh14-28011

—Ian Allan