Experience played role in Crosby beating out Ficken

The second-most-expensive kicker in the league did not renegotiate his contract.

Mason Crosby has beaten out Sam Ficken to earn a 13th season as the Green Bay Packers’ kicker.

It was a hotly contested battle with Ficken, the strong-legged but inexperienced challenger. Crosby hadn’t faced a challenger since 2013, when he was coming off a dreadful 2012 season in which he was a league-worst 21-of-33 (63.6 percent) on field goals. Crosby wasn’t that bad in 2018 but he wasn’t very good, either.

With a $5.25 million salary-cap charge, the most expensive kicker in the NFL was one of its worst. He made 30-of-37 field-goal attempts, an 81.1 percent success rate that was torpedoed by his four-miss game at Detroit. He went 1-for-3 on must-make field goals, with a 52-yard miss that would have beaten the Vikings in Week 2, a 27-yarder to beat San Francisco and a 49-yard miss against Arizona that clinched Mike McCarthy’s firing.

“People underestimate how difficult it is to kick in Lambeau Field in the weather he has to kick it in,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said during the offseason. “Mason’s done a good job of that over the years. He’s obviously a veteran, he’s been in a lot of situations. I look for Mason to have a bounce-back year.”

Gutekunst is right about kicking in Lambeau Field, but not even that works in Crosby’s favor. Over the past five seasons, Crosby has made 83.0 percent of his field goals at home. Visiting kickers, on the other hand, have made 86.2 percent.

By handing the job to Crosby, they are counting on a similar bounce-back season as took place after 2012. Crosby made 89.2 percent of his field-goal attempts in 2013, 81.9 percent in 2014, 85.7 percent in 2015 and 86.7 percent in 2016. However, he’s now had two subpar seasons. Of the 29 kickers with a total of 30 field-goal attempts over the past two seasons, Crosby is 25th with 80.4 percent accuracy. For his career, Crosby has connected on 80.4 percent of his field goals. Of 26 active kickers with at least 100 career field-goal attempts, Crosby ranks 25th in career marksmanship.

The Packers need better. After back-to-back losing seasons, this is a team that probably can’t survive Crosby missing some big kicks. Moreover, as he enters his final season under contract, the sheer dollars demand a better performance. In terms of cap charge, Crosby’s 2019 figure of $4.85 million makes him the second-most expensive kicker in the league. There were no talks about renegotiating, according to a source.

Experience, though, won the day.

“That experience matters, at all positions,” Gutekunst said earlier in the week. “In scouting, we always talk about trying to predict the future. Their past is the best predictor of that. So, it does matter. For the young guys at all the positions on our team, there's no way they can combat that, right? They've just got to go out there and perform and make us feel more comfortable about moving on from guys who have a lot of experience. But Mason has been a premier kicker in this league for a long time. Obviously, he's handled this stadium and this weather and you can't ignore that stuff.”

At the end of the offseason and again after Thursday’s preseason finale, Ficken complimented Crosby for being a good teammate.

“I’ve got to give a lot of credit to Mason,” Ficken said on Thursday. “He was a stand-up guy the whole time. He’s an exceptional kicker. So, credit to him and how he helped me along and just the little things you can pick up from one another, so that’s been great.”

Crosby didn’t think twice about being a mentor.

“I’m a positive guy and I love the game of football,” he said earlier in camp. “Anyone in this locker room is a teammate of mine. I’m worried about my process and my thing. I don’t worry about who’s out there or who I’m competing against. I’ve got to make sure I take care of my stuff. My personality’s not to be a jerk and be a guy that’s just trying to make it hard on everybody. I really like Sam and I think he has a future.”

Will that future be with the Bears, who need a kicker headed into the teams’ Week 1 rivalry? Ficken is subject to waivers but, his obvious leg strength notwithstanding, didn’t have a truly exceptional training camp. He is 3-of-6 in two short stints with the Rams the past two seasons.

“If it happens that way, I’m going to do everything I can to perform to the best of my abilities,” Ficken said. “Obviously, it would be a little strange, but we’ll let things pan out and see what happens.”