Packers Were Just Gifted Perfect Kicker Solution Amid Preseason Struggles

The Green Bay Packers' preseason kicking competition has been one of the most painful parts of training camp for fans to follow. Neither Anders Carlson nor Greg Joseph looks like the correct answer at the position for a team hoping to be in Super Bowl contention, and a sneaky practice squad addition doesn't help much either.

But the Packers just got incredibly lucky. After refusing to bring in any improved compeition for most of the preseason, the perfect answer to the problem has fallen into their lap. And it won't even cost them a draft pick in a trade.

The Washington Commanders released Riley Patterson on Thursday morning after trading a seventh-round pick to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for Cade York.

The Pack probably should have been willing to swap a seventh for York in the first place, but Patterson is a strong consolation option.

Patterson has made a higher percentage of his career field goals (88.1%) than Anders Carlson even made extra points (87.2%), never mind field goals (81.8%) as a rookie. Greg Joseph has also never eclipsed 88% on field goal attempts in any of his four NFL seasons, with a career 82.6% rate.

There's some room for concern around Patterson's leg strength, being a career 3-of-6 from 50-plus yards and a career-long of 53, but Carlson and Joseph don't exactly thrive in that area either. Carlson went 3-of-5 (long of 53) from 50-plus last year, and Joseph is a career 57% from that range, only eclipsing 55 yards on a made field goal in one of his pro seasons.

Now admittedly, not all made field goals are created equal. It can feel kind of goofy to use PFF grades for a kicker's performance, but it gives us another lens to evaluate things that accounts more for difficulty of kicks being made, and how close a kicker was to missing.

And PFF has graded Patterson above 70.0 on field goals in two of his three seasons. Carlson, for comparison, put up a brutal 46.8 as a rookie, and Joseph has never topped the 67.5 mark he earned as a rookie in 2019.

Adding a kicker isn't going to be the thing that has the Packers surge forward from their tie for ninth in FanDuel Sportsbook's Super Bowl odds (+1800), but we see every year that a kicker can absolutely be the deciding factor in a close game once the postseason does roll around.

The Packers need to stop messing around with this competition and grab Patterson to solidify the position before it's too late.

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