Better late than never, perhaps, but the Green Bay Packers will have a kicking combination. According to a source, they have signed former Georgia standout Jack Podlesny to challenge Anders Carlson.
During his senior season with the Bulldogs, Podlesny was named SEC Special Teams Player of the Year after making 26-of-31 field-goal attempts and 73-of-74 point-after tries; two of the missed field goals came in the playoff victory over Ohio State. About two-thirds of his kickoffs resulted in touchbacks. It was Podlesny, not Carlson, who was the first-team all-SEC kicker.
In three seasons, he made 82.4 percent of his field goals, though it was only 56.5 percent from 40-plus yards. To cap his freshman year, he booted a 53-yard field goal to beat Cincinnati in the Peach Bowl.
“Trotting out there, I was trying to treat it like any other kick,” Podlesny said of the winning kick. “Honestly, I’m going to give it to you straight, I don’t remember much — I kind of blacked out during that experience.
“I was thinking about it the other day actually, something I’ve always talked with my sports psychologist about is, put yourself in moments that you’ve been in before, and remember that experience because a good experience can lead to another one. Just thinking about looking up after I hit that, and I knew I hit a clean ball, so I was just like, ‘It better go in,’ looking up seeing it split the posts, I was thrilled.”
Podlesny went undrafted and spent the offseason and the first half of training camp with the Minnesota Vikings. He did not attempt any kicks in the preseason, though he made a high-pressure kick to end the offseason program.
Carlson was Green Bay’s sixth-round pick this year. Including field goals and extra points, he made his first 17 kicks but fell into a slump from which he could not escape. He missed a league-high 11 kicks during the regular season, then added a missed extra point in the wild-card win at Dallas and a missed field goal in the divisional-round loss at San Francisco.
“I think there’s a lot to learn,” Carlson said after the loss. “For me, it’s tough to see these guys because I know how much they put in. I just want to put them in the best position as possible. Just thinking about them and working for them.”
Carlson only briefly had a challenger during his rookie season. Before the draft last year, they signed former South Carolina kicker Parker White. On May 24, they released White to sign running back Emanuel Wilson.
For the rest of the year – from the June minicamp through training camp and the preseason, and all the way through the regular season, Carlson was flying solo, even though it had to be on everyone’s mind that Carlson’s kick-a-game habit could cost them dearly.
“We’ve got a lot of confidence in him,” coach Matt LaFleur said last week. “Yeah, you’d like him to make every kick, no doubt about it, but I think it’s part of the growth process. A lot of young [players], especially kickers, go through some trials and tribulations, unfortunately.”
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