As Rich Bisaccia Said, Packers Made a Cut at Kicker

It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, but the Green Bay Packers have cut kicker JJ Molson.

Now, you may be asking why it shouldn’t come as a surprise, and well, it’s because back in April, Rich Bisaccia told us that the Packers wouldn’t go into training camp with three kickers on the roster.

"“We’re fortunate, we’re going to have OTAs, and some of those practices where we get the chance to evaluate the different kickers as we go through–and I don’t think we will go to training camp with three (kickers), I think we will go to training camp with two after I visit with Brian (Gutekunst) and Coach LaFleur to see how that goes,” said Bisaccia via Packers.com. “I’d like to see all three before we make a decision.”"

Molson was signed by the Green Bay Packers in December of 2020 and was on the practice squad from that time through the end of the 2021 season. He has no regular season field goal or extra point attempts in his NFL career.

With weekly absences due to COVID-19 over the last two seasons, Molson provided the Packers with a backup plan at kicker had Mason Crosby ever had to miss any time. To some degree, it felt like Green Bay liked what they had in Molson, but he may have just been insurance at the position more than anything.

Now it is Crosby and Dominik Eberle who remain at kicker. While Eberle certainly doesn’t have a ton of experience, he does have three career field goal attempts, making two of them, along with five extra point attempts, making all five. Eberle was also on the Las Vegas practice squad in 2020, playing under Bisaccia.

Each of these factors — Eberle’s experience and connection with Bisaccia — likely played roles in the Packers choosing him over Molson.

So it is now Eberle and Crosby competing at the kicker position. However, even though the Greem Bay Packers can create $3.4 million in cap space by cutting Crosby after June 1st, it is difficult to envision him not winning the job.

This is, of course, a Packers team with Super Bowl aspirations and an experienced roster, and so there are obvious risks in relying heavily on Eberle, who has less than 10 career attempts to his name.

How will Eberle respond to having to hit a 42-yard field goal at Lambeau Field in January? Maybe he’s ready for that moment, but that is still unknown, whereas, with Crosby, you know what you’re getting for the most part.

While Crosby didn’t have his best season by any means in 2021, hitting just 73% of his attempts and also struggling from 40-plus yards, he isn’t solely to blame for some of those missed kicks either. Blocking was an issue, as were the holds and snaps as well.

Something else to note with Crosby was his inability to get kickoffs through the end zone with regularity last season, which was a problem for the Packers’ poor kick coverage unit. If he is the kicker once again in 2022, will this improve? Or will Green Bay handle it differently?

With Molson cut, Green Bay is now at 89 players, leaving them an opening on the roster to make another addition.