Green Bay Packers: Cutting Daniels shows Crosby isn’t a lock to make roster

The Green Bay Packers just recently cut veteran Mike Daniels and this is a reminder that hardly anyone is safe on an NFL roster, including Mason Crosby.

Just before Green Bay Packers’ Training Camp was about to begin, the news was released that the Packers had decided to move on from veteran defensive lineman, Mike Daniels.

This came as a shock to just about everyone in the football community and while there were likely a number of reasons for their decision to move on from the big man, money was perhaps the biggest factor.

Daniels was due $10.7 million this season from Green Bay, but by releasing him, the Packers would suffer a cap hit of just $2.4 million, which saves them a grand total of $8.3 million. Green Bay could use that money for a free agent this season, but likely it will be rolled over to the 2020 offseason and be put towards contract extensions for key players.

What this move reminds us is that hardly anyone is safe in the NFL and that holds true for kicker, Mason Crosby.

For over a decade the Green Bay Packers have been in the enviable position of not really having to worry about a kicker. Outside of a horrendous 2012 season, Crosby has been very steady and has hit a number of game-winners along the way.

However, amongst all the issues that we saw from this Packers team in 2018, Crosby was one of them. On the season he would hit 81.1 percent of his field goals, which on the surface isn’t awful by any means but it was the moments in which he missed those kicks that hurt the most.

In week two against Minnesota, Crosby would miss the game-winning field goal as time expired. Then in Detroit, he would go 1/5 on field goal attempts and 0/1 on extra points. The Packers would lose that game by only eight points. Lastly, against Arizona he would miss the game-tying field goal as the clock hit zero.

As a result, the Green Bay Packers signed Sam Ficken this offseason to come in and compete with Crosby for the starting position. In his short career, Ficken is just 3/6 on field goal attempts and it is easy to brush this competition off since Crosby is the veteran with far more experience.

With that said, if Ficken can outperform Crosby or even keep the competition close, the Packers could see an avenue similar to the Mike Daniels situation where they could save some money and still be comfortable with the position.

According to Spotrac, Crosby’s cap hit in 2019 is $4.85 million and if the Packers were to cut him, they would take a dead cap hit of $1.25 million. This savings of $3.6 million could be rolled over to the new season as well and put towards contract extensions for players such as Kenny Clark and David Bakhtiari.

So far through the first few days of Training Camp, neither kicker has done anything to stand out. Crosby has been out with a minor injury and Ficken went just 1/3 on the first day.

While Crosby should easily win this competition and I do expect him to be the Green Bay Packers’ kicker come week one, we still have to see how Training Camp and the preseason plays out for each of these players.

As the Packers have already shown us, if they feel they can get similar production while saving money, they will go that route. And Mason Crosby is no exception to this rule.