And here we thought the Green Bay Packers would choose between incumbent Mason Crosby and street free agent Giorgio Tavecchio to kick the football for them this season. Maybe, maybe not, says GM Ted Thompson.
“We’ll see,” Thompson said during his weekly training camp session with reporters. “Never stop looking.”
A man of many words, that Big Ted.
For sure, neither Crosby or Tavecchio seems to have separated himself in the competition. Crosby started off horribly, but has been kicking the ball well of late, including hitting all three of his tries in Saturday night’s preseason contest.
Tavecchio seems to be going the other way. He had a clear advantage over Crosby early on, but that advantage has disappeared in the past week. Tavecchio was 1-of-2 on Saturday and lost to Crosby head-to-head on Monday for the first time since training camp opened.
Tavecchio still has the better overall practice record, however, hitting 45-of-51 to Crosby’s 41-of-51.
So if neither of these guys end up being the Packers kicker, who the hell might be, you’re probably wondering.
Well, Rian Lindell seems like the best candidate. He was just released by Buffalo. And yeah, he’s played 13 years in the league, but hit 87.5 percent of his kicks last season. In his career, he’s at 81.3. Oh, and he can obviously kick in the cold.
By comparison, Crosby hit just 63.6 percent of his kicks last season and has a 76.8 career percentage.
Thompson also mentioned he isn’t ready to make a decision yet.
“It’s just when you get comfortable with the decision,” Thompson said.
So, not really a big vote of confidence for either of the guys on the roster at the moment.