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

June 5, 2010   ·   MJ Kasprzak   ·   Jump to comments

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 notoriou...

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