Green Bay Packers Unit Grades, Volume VIII: Kickers and Punters

The Green Bay Packers struggled in special teams in 2009, and perhaps nowhere was this more glaring than in the kicking game. (Unfortunately, one could also make the case that the coverage units and return units were not great, either—please see those analyses at the accompanying links.)

In order to grade objectively, one must rely on statistics over conjecture. However, a dry comparison of stats would be inaccurate, as well, since there are variables that affect a player's performance—maybe even more with kickers than most other positions.

For instance, the Packers play outdoors in cold weather on natural grass putting Mason Crosby at a disadvantage compared to Ryan Longwell. On the other hand, that would not be the case if the Packers played most of the late season on the road in domes and the one cold weather game while hosting the Vikings.

The Packers played all four of their December games in the elements, including three of them along the notoriously windy Lake Michigan. Meanwhile, Green Bay played indoors in just three games, their kickers were among those at the largest disadvantage in the league, however, not enough to justify their poor performances, but enough to mitigate them slightly.

Mason Crosby: D

Why does Crosby even pass? For a few reasons beyond the aforementioned mitigating variables...

1. He was very good on kickoffs, and that rates as high as any range of field goals. A good kicker helps keep a couple of points per game off the scoreboard by making the opposition drive deeper, and Crosby helped his own cause as the last defender on kicks. Thus, I rate his overall performance on kickoffs a B+.

2. He was automatic on extra points and field goals inside 30 yards (including the playoff game). Sure, you are supposed to be, but among nearly 70 such kicks, it is not uncommon to miss one therefore that is enough for at least a B.

3. Four of his nine misses were from 50 or more yards, a range one cannot expect kickers to hit often; Crosby hit just two of six.

That being said, in nine kicks from 30-39 yards, one might say an average kicker misses one; Crosby missed two. And from 40-49 yards is where the best are separated from the rest; Crosby was just four of seven, while opponents hit five of seven.

So one more miss from 30-39 and one more from 40-49 is enough to give a guy a D? Yes, because one other variable was the number of times he missed critical kicks. I will not take the time to chart that against all the other kickers in the league, but I am reasonably certain it was more often than average.

Jeremy Kapinos: D

Kapinos had a decent average—less than two yards lower than the opponents' average head-to-head. But his net was considerably worse than theirs, in part because of the combination of mediocre-at-best hangtime and poor coverage, but also in past because of his poor "downed inside the 20" to touchback ratio.

Most punters average two to one or better, and Ben Graham of the Arizona Cardinals had a 14:1 ratio! Kapinos had 15 punts downed inside the 20 to 10 touchbacks, a 3:2 ratio. Even the mitigation of less-than-ideal conditions is insufficient to off-set his poor performance.