Ageless Crosby Keeps Setting the Bar
GREEN BAY, Wis. – When you play a long time, you hit milestones.
When you play with good teams, you also hit milestones.
Such is the case for longtime Green Bay Packers kicker Mason Crosby.
Crosby will enter his 15th season in the NFL ranked 20th all-time in scoring with 1,682 points. If he hits that 120-point average this season, he’d reach 1,800 career points. Only 12 players in NFL history have hit that milestone. If he plays three more seasons, Crosby would zoom past 2,000 career points. Only seven players have scored that many. With two active players ahead of him on the scoring list, Crosby might rank 10th in NFL history in points by the end of the 2023 season.
“Those are definitely stats once I’m done, whenever it’s all said and done, I’ll kind of look at and see where I end up,” Crosby said after making 7-of-8 field-goal attempts to close Monday’s practice inside the Don Hutson Center. “Last year, I remember breaking into some different top spots and it’s cool. I’d lie if it was like it doesn’t mean anything to me. That kind of stuff is awesome, and it’s a credit to Aaron (Rodgers) and Brett (Favre) before him and the guys that on offense and the defensive side of the ball that allow me to go out there and finish scoring drives and kick field goals. I couldn’t do it without those guys, and it means a lot to me.”
Crosby is rolling into his age-37 season. He made a career-high 91.7 percent of his field-goal attempts in 2019. He missed two field goals that season, which was two more than he missed last season, when he was a perfect 16-of-16.
His efficiency since his five-miss debacle at Detroit on Oct. 7, 2018, has been incredible. After missing four field-goal tries in that game, he’s missed four in his last 47 games.
“I wish I could bottle up a secret for you and just try to have that harnessed,” Crosby said. “I do think sometimes it’s just simplifying things. My process, experience over time, I’ve learned so much, and I’m not afraid to learn from positives and learn from all the negatives that have happened in my career. If I choose to avoid things and not learn from moments, then I’m not growing. I think I’ve grown a lot over my career. I’ve chosen to see a missed kick or a missed opportunity as a learning and a growing moment.”
Crosby, who is under contract through 2022, wouldn’t say how much longer he planned on playing. How he’s feeling physically and mentally will make that determination. With JJ Molson on the roster to take some of the strain off Crosby’s leg, the veteran kicker said the key at this stage of his career is quality over quantity.
It’s perhaps interesting to note that Adam Vinatieri is the NFL’s all-time scoring leader with 2,673 points. He kicked until age 47. If Crosby kicks for another 10 seasons and averages 100 points per season, he’d have 2,682 points. That, of course, is a goal that’s impossibly far into the future. For now, he’s going to continue to enjoy his time with the team that drafted him in 2007.
“We love Green Bay and we love being here,” he said of himself and his wife, Molly. “Our plan right now is to just live it to the fullest. I’ve taken up ice fishing more and (am) doing more winter activities as we stay here through the offseason every year. Just really making it home and seeing where that takes us.”
