How Packers coach Matt LaFleur put team’s kickers in a ‘pretty uncomfortable’ situation (2024)

GREEN BAY — No one — certainly not Anders Carlson, Greg Joseph or Jack Podlesny — will confuse the manufactured, air-quotes “pressure” created during Tuesday’s organized team activity practice with the authentic pressure an NFL kicker experiences in a game-on-the-line situation.

But for the Green Bay Packers’ three kickers competing for one job, it was as close to a pressurized environment as can be created in an early June practice setting at Ray Nitschke Field.

To end practice, the third and final session open to reporters, Podlesny, Joseph and Carlson all lined up one by one for 53-yard attempts. The wrinkle? Coach Matt LaFleur charged their teammates with doing whatever they could to distract them.

And so, from spraying water bottles, to screaming at the top of their lungs and waving towels, to yelling at the kickers from just outside their personal spaces, the players did what they could.

Imagine golf fans lining the fairway near the tee box, but replace the silence and decorum with anarchy and lunacy.

“Just make it as difficult as possible on the kickers,” LaFleur replied when asked what he was trying to accomplish. “We want to put ‘em in situations that are pretty uncomfortable. I would say that’s pretty uncomfortable.”

It certainly was. Joseph went first and was wide left. Podlesny went next and missed wide left, too. Then came Carlson, the incumbent who didn’t really face any in-person competition last year as a rookie sixth-round draft pick.

Carlson split the uprights, and the distractions turned into celebration.

“Nowhere in ball are you going to have an entire team lined up around you, but (we wanted) just to try to amp up that level of pressure,” LaFleur added. “And it was good to see that last one go through the uprights.”

Unofficially, Podlesny went 5-for-7 on the day, missing a 57-yarder at the end of a 2-minute drill and the 53-yard miss during distraction-a-palooza.

Carlson finished the day 6-for-7, with his one miss appearing to come from 45 yards out during a kicking period. He connected on his 57-yarder before making the 53-yarder amid the chaos.

Joseph also was 6-for-7, with his lone miss being the 53-yarder at the end of practice.

“Obviously, that doesn’t happen during a game so it’s not really game-like but, still, (I’ve) got to do better on each kick,” Joseph said after practice. “I’d put together a good day before then; just didn’t see my eyes fully through on that one. Got to get better.”

LaFleur said Tuesday marked just the second time during the three-week OTA session in which all three kickers kicked on the same day. For most of the offseason program, special-teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia rotated each day by having two of the three kick and the third rest his leg.

“The circ*mstances are the same. It’s the same temperature outside. It’s the same wind. You’re comparing apples to apples more,” LaFleur replied when asked why he wanted all three to kick on Tuesday, adding that Tuesday’s 82-degree temperatures were roughly 15 degrees warmer than Monday’s practice had been.

“I just think it’s nice when they get in the same environment and you can compare them on the same day.”

For Carlson, whose rookie season ended with a miss on a 41-yard attempt with 6 minutes left in the Packers’ 24-21 NFC divisional playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Jan. 20, the competition has been a departure from last year, when the Packers didn’t re-sign all-time leading scorer Mason Crosby and cut offseason kicker Parker White shortly after picking Carlson.

But with Carlson having finished the year having made 41 of 47 extra points and 29 of 36 field-goal attempts — missing more total kicks than any other kicker in the league and missing at least one kick in 10 of the Packers’ final 12 games — general manager Brian Gutekunst, LaFleur and Bisaccia all agreed that ratcheting up the competition made sense.

Although Podlesny has yet to attempt a kick in an NFL game — preseason, regular season or postseason — after losing out to Joseph last summer for the Minnesota Vikings’ kicking job, he did boot a game-winning 53-yarder in the final seconds of the 2020 Peach Bowl as the University of Georgia’s kicker.

While Carlson didn’t have a walk-off game-winner last season, he did make a 32-yarder with 20 seconds to play to snap a 30-30 tie in the Packers’ 33-30 win over the Carolina Panthers last Dec. 24, and his extra point with 2 minutes, 46 seconds left was the winning margin in the Packers’ 18-17 victory over the New Orleans Saints on Sept. 24.

Carlson and Podlesny didn’t come through the Packers locker room during the media access period, but when asked how Carlson has responded to the in-person competition this spring, LaFleur replied, “I think there’s been a lot of good moments. Like I’ve mentioned before, it’s just the consistency day-in and day-out.

“I think all those guys have had their own moments where they’ve kind of won the day. It’s a tight battle.”

Joseph has also bounced around some after going undrafted out of Florida Atlantic in 2018, joining the Miami Dolphins, Cleveland Browns, Tennessee Titans and Tampa Bay Buccaneers before winning the Vikings’ kicking job in 2021.

Joseph did make some big kicks in his time with the Vikings, though. In 2022, he made a walk-off 40-yarder in overtime to beat the Indianapolis Colts, then a week later hit a Vikings franchise-record 61-yarder as time expired to beat the New York Giants.

Last season, Joseph hit a 36-yarder with 1:57 left to account for the only points in the Vikings’ 3-0 win over the Las Vegas Raiders.

“Obviously, every year’s a new year, so I just focus on getting better each and every day, working on my craft. Simple as that,” Joseph said. “At the end of the day, it’s just like when I was going into Minnesota and they asked me this and that about kickers. Doesn’t matter. Turning a new page and new season.”

That said, Joseph doesn’t lack for confidence. He’s wearing Crosby’s old No. 2 jersey — having kicked against Crosby before, Joseph reached out to him after signing with the Packers to ask if it was OK to take his old number — and Joseph doesn’t sound the least bit uncertain about his chances.

“We have a respectful relationship. We’ll see what happens when I make the team jersey-wise,” Joseph said of his conversation with Crosby.

“As I get better and better, the expectations for myself get higher and higher, so the bar keeps getting raised. And it probably will continue for the rest of my career.”

Extra points

Wide receiver Bo Melton had the play of the day on a 75-yard deep-ball touchdown from Jordan Love. … Defensive end Lukas Van Ness, who missed last week’s open OTA practice with a broken thumb, was back practicing, as were Rashan Gary, Preston Smith and left guard Elgton Jenkins, who’d been excused from last week’s open practice. … First-round pick Jordan Morgan worked at both tackle spots in 11-on-11, as did veteran free-agent pickup Andre Dillard. Morgan also saw action at right guard. … Quarterback-turned-receiver Alex McGough practiced after missing time with a hamstring injury. … Cornerback Jaire Alexander was in attendance but did not practice.