Packers may not have to delve into the 2024 NFL Draft for specialists (2024)

GREEN BAY — By his own admission, Brian Gutekunst didn’t think he had a Super Bowl contender on his hands during the Green Bay Packers’ 2-5 start to the 2023 season.

And so, the Packers general manager was ready to endure the growing pains he knew would come with fielding such a young team — from his first-time starting quarterback Jordan Love, to the bevy of first- and second-year wide receivers and tight ends, to his first-year specialists in punter Daniel Whelan and kicker Anders Carlson.

But when Carlson missed a crucial 41-yard field-goal attempt with 6 minutes left in the Packers’ 24-21 NFC divisional playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Jan. 20 — a game which the Packers were leading 21-17 at the time of Carlson’s miss — it was clear to Gutekunst that in-person competition would be needed to bring out the best in Carlson moving forward.

That explains why the Packers kicked off their offseason program last week with not just Carlson but two other kickers on the roster: Ex-Georgia kicker Jack Podlesny, who has never attempted an NFL kick in a regular-season or even preseason game after a training-camp stint with the Minnesota Vikings last summer, and ex-Vikings kicker Greg Joseph, Minnesota’s incumbent kicker who beat out Podlesny in camp.

Gutekunst acknowledged earlier this offseason that perhaps bringing in a veteran kicker as Carlson’s late-season inconsistency mounted would have been wise, but he ultimately decided against it.

Carlson 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. He missed at least one kick in 10 of the Packers’ final 12 games.

“As we went through the course of the season, we were committed to going through the ups and downs that a lot of young rookie kickers go through,” Gutekunst said. “Certainly, what we went through was not anything different than what a lot of guys go through.

“I think as we got towards the end of the season and had an opportunity to be in the playoffs, if there was a veteran option out there that would have been really good, then maybe we would have considered it. But there wasn’t. (Carlson) was the best option by far. (And) we’re really excited about where he’s going.”

Nonetheless, Gutekunst and coach Matt LaFleur both wanted Carlson to face in-person competition, something Carlson didn’t have to deal with after the Packers took him in the sixth round of last year’s draft out of Auburn.

“We want competition at every position, so we're always going to bring in competition,” LaFleur said after the season. “I’m a firm believer that competition brings out the best in one another.”

Meanwhile, among the Packers’ offseason priorities was re-signing two-time first-team All-Pro return man Keisean Nixon, and they accomplished that with a three-year, $18 million deal during the free-agent negotiating window. Although the deal was reflective of his expanded role on defense, the team is still counting on him to be a field-tilter in the return game — especially with a rejiggered kickoff designed to make the play relevant again.

Nixon has returned more kickoffs over the past two seasons (65) than any other player in the NFL, leading the league in return average in 2022 (28.8 yards per return, with five returns of at least 50 yards, including a 105-yard touchdown) and last season (26.1 yards per return, with only one 50-plus yard return).

“Certainly, when you have a returner as dynamic as Keisean, the more opportunities he can get to return, (the better),” LaFleur said. “I think (the rule change) could set us up.”

In addition to Nixon, the Packers also re-signed linebackers Kristian Welch and Eric Wilson, tight end Tyler Davis, and cornerback Robert Rochell, all key pieces of their blocking and coverage units.

Depth chart

Best in class

Tory Taylor, P, Iowa

Go ahead, make all the jokes you’d like about the ineptitude of the Iowa offense. Truth be told, the Hawkeyes would have a hard time refuting it. After all, despite winning the Big Ten West, their season ended with goose eggs on the scoreboard in losses in the Big Ten Championship Game (26-0 to Michigan) and in the Citrus Bowl (35-0 to Tennessee).

Through it all, the Australian-born Taylor was booting rocket ball after rocket ball, finishing the season with an FBS-best 48.2 yards per punt. He ended his college career having punted for more yards than any player in FBS history.

“There’s a lot of guys that can get good balls on the driving range, but how good are you out on the course?” Taylor said at the NFL scouting combine. “I’ve been really good at being able to do it in the games, when it counts.”

Best of the rest

Will Reichard, K, Alabama; Ryan Rehkow, P, BYU; Cameron Little, K, Arkansas; Joshua Karty, K, Stanford; Austin McNamara, P, Texas Tech; Harrison Mevis, K, Missouri.

Pick to click

Peter Bowden, LS, Wisconsin

The redshirt senior from San Diego was a finalist for the Patrick Mannelly Award last year, given annually to college football’s best long-snapper.

If that comes as news to you as a Badgers fan, that’s OK. Bowden is well aware that he’s not as famous as, say, running back Braelon Allen, who is also expected to be drafted this week.

“The success of my teammates, I take a little bit of credit for their success. But at the same time, I'm trying to stay in the back,” Bowden told the State Journal last season. “I really view it as like, the better I can do my job, (then) the better they can do their job, and that's what's important.

“I have fun with it, though. I crack jokes from time to time.”

Bowden, who came to UW as a walk-on but was put on scholarship in 2020, is no joke. He’s the top-rated snapper in the draft and the only one with a chance of actually being drafted.

History lesson

There’s a school of thought in the NFL that you should never draft a specialist. Based on the Packers’ returns on such picks, they might consider following that adage.

Other than all-time leading scorer Mason Crosby, who was a sixth-round pick in 2007 out of Colorado, the Packers’ history with drafting specialists is full of disappointments.

In fairness to Carlson, it’s too early to say how he should be judged, but other past picks did not prove to be selections well spent.

In his first draft in charge in 2018, Gutekunst used not one but two picks on specialists: A fifth-rounder on punter JK Scott, and a seventh-rounder on long-snapper Hunter Bradley. Scott held the job for three seasons, was cut at the end of training camp in 2021 and now punts for the Los Angeles Chargers. Bradley lost his spot a few months later in November 2021, and Crosby’s accuracy suffered amid the shuffling of the snap-hold-kick operation.

Including Scott, the Packers have drafted 12 punters since 1979, when they actually drafted two of them: Utah’s Rick Partridge in the eighth round and South Dakota’s Bill Moats in the 12th round. (Neither made the team.) In 1981, they used a third-round pick on Michigan State’s Ray Stachowicz, who lasted only two seasons.

The worst specialist pick, though, was by coach/GM Mike Sherman, who traded up in the 2004 draft to take Ohio State’s B.J. Sander in the third round. Sander was so overwhelmed as a rookie that the Packers carried him and veteran Bryan Barker (who did the actual punting) on the roster all season. Sander then punted in 2005 and never played in the NFL again.

Even the great Ron Wolf, a Pro Football Hall of Fame GM, squandered a third-round pick in 1997 on Penn State kicker Brett Conway — a mistake that didn’t cost him because he also claimed undrafted rookie free agent Ryan Longwell on waivers from San Francisco. Longwell, of course, went on to become the franchise’s all-time leading scorer before being surpassed by Crosby.