WHO WILL BE KICKING FOR THE GREEN BAY PACKERS THIS SEASON

all right Brad uh Anders Carlson has not one but two other kickers in Camp with him right now for OTAs uh Rich bace was explaining to us last week or two weeks ago that two guys kick every day so you know whether it's Anders and uh p p podlesny who kick one day and then it's Greg Joseph and Anders or Greg Joseph and P lesny whoever it is they rotate every day how many times during your six-year NFL career did you have inperson competition because they they handed the job on a silver platter to their sixth round pick which I don't know if the Panthers did that for you but on the on the flip side Daniel wheelen had a beat out a longtime NFL punter longer than you even longtime NFL punter and now this offseason at least to this point he does not have competition in person with him so help us understand the specialist's view of each of those two scenarios well I'll be honest Jason I'm trying to understand what the Packers are doing myself I've never heard of a thre man kicking competition that seemed strange to me strange with a capital S because I get that you can rotate more with two guys but what it says to me is they don't know what they have that I I'll just be honest like if you're gonna try to create competition in such a way that you need three guys there you have a real confusion as to who's going to be your guy and what they have two is usually plenty if you can get two capable NFL kickers that's usually plenty to split the Reps because usually in any given field goal team period or any given kickoff period which will become a lot more relevant now with the new kickoff rules M you might get only five total field goals you might get five or six total kickoffs so even with a two-man competition on days that you do that you're getting two or three team kicks now you can stretch that out a little bit longer in training camp and maybe each get four but there's not a whole lot of kicks that you can do where you can put the pressure on make it feel like it really matters for that reason I will be shocked if they open up training camp with three I I I I firmly believe they're going to narrow it down to two and walk into training camp with two but to me my my personal best experiences in training camp and as a special teams unit right kicker punter Long Snapper is when we all had a level of competition all these guys are already inherently competitive so it's not like you look at a guy and say this dude's not taking it seriously we need to give him a kick in the pants that's not the case usually usually the cas is one it's good to share rep so you don't burn your leg out because it's as much as you want to maybe not you Jason but the NFL community in general want to give Specialists a hard time you are working very specific muscles and tendons repeatedly and you have to do it for a long time at a high level so you need some ability to restrain reps but also get work so that's where competition is helpful but listen I I five of my six years I had competition my rookie year I had legit competition with a 12year veteran like I got drafted but I still had to go earn it and when I saw the guy I was competing with there were days where I'm like I don't know how I'm going to beat this guy this guy mean turning a ball over and punting is basically you hit the ball perfectly that's a tight spiral it goes where you want distance hang time the whole thing and the he would hit nine out of 10 perfect I was like how am I supposed to beat this guy so it it showed me what a pro looked like it made me earn it it made my teammates respect me when I eventually did beat him out so I feel like the Packers did if we're going to focus on Carlson in the kicking position just for a minute I feel like it did Carlson a disservice the fact that he was drafted and I don't doubt his ability I don't necessarily doubt the draft pick I think they mishandled it from the minute they drafted him goody and the Packers should have introduced some level of competition made him earn it maybe show what it looks like to be an NFL kicker maybe show what the habits the stretching routines the mindset the the real competition that is the NFL make him go through that for his own benefit and to get the respect of his teammates and then at that point maybe he's in a more seasoned position week one as opposed to for lack of better term being handed the job I also don't think gudy would have predicted the season would have went so well to where you have legitimately stressful and meaningful kicks on your belt every specialist Yours Truly included has rough rookie Seasons it's very rare that a guy can come in the league and be a top 10 specialist very very hard I fell in the bottom third my rookie year Carlson I think in most categories falls in the bottom third and that's just the reality and if you talk to special teams coaches they'll tell you you expect to take your lumps with a young specialist in year one then in year one to two big leaps occur and I had a big leap myself I expect Andre Carlson to a big leap I just didn't expect them to have it be uh such a spotlight put on him for when those lumps occur which is exactly what happened this last year now calling into question his ability if the Packers were a six and 11 team I think the concern level would be much lower even with the same performance for rers Carlson so so did you did you have competition every year in person every year every year but one my first year in Jacksonville we did not but my first year in they did the same thing with you as they as the ERS did with Carlson we drafted this guy we're giving him the job well well no so I I did have competition my first year that was my only competition where I I felt like I had to go earn it every year after that I was a veteran and they just they just signed an undrafted free agent to take reps and just to push me and just push me a little bit the only time I didn't have competition was my first year in Jacksonville when I signed as a free agent and none of the Specialists had competition for whatever reason but besides that even my second year in Jacksonville all the all the competition I had it never really felt like a threat outside of my first year but it was just good it was just good to create okay an opportunity where you need to go win it and you have to then face someone who's punting right alongside of you and it's on you to go beat him each and every day so um I felt like it was incredibly valuable for me my rookie year to have competition against a 12year vet and to go out there and beat him now I I am confused that Daniel whan doesn't have competition because to me he doesn't seem like he had the type of season that would lead him to be impervious to competition and any threat of him um you know not being the punter next year it would be I'm not I'm not up GM it seems like to me it would be better if you had a kicking competition of Two and a punting competition of two and then see where see where everything Lies when it comes to Final Cuts and and they did sign Peter Bowen their the badger Long Snapper so don't sleep on Peter he's a good long snapper right so even uh even the Long Snapper position has competition which it didn't have uh for a good chunk of last off off season so again I don't know maybe they're going to cut one of these kickers and bring a punter in for training camp but uh so what you're saying if if I'm hearing you correctly the old special teams coach adage if you didn't have in-person competition well you're not just competing competition is not just who's in Camp with you you're competing against all these Specialists who aren't signed right now that doesn't hold a whole lot of water the the coaches will use that and if I had a dollar for every time that you would heard hear coaches say that there there's a level of truth to it because there is at any given time a good five Specialists waiting in the wings particularly when you're down to final cutdowns that are are very capable MH but there's nothing like being reminded every day that you're replaceable because there's someone else literally doing the same job you know it's kind of like in uh The Dark Knight when they use a bad example maybe but when those you know the Joker broke a pool queue and said we're having tryouts it's kind of what it's like it's like there's two guys for one job and you have to go find a way to be that guy and even if you have the inside track you still got to go do it and meanwhile it's a very visible result right good punt missed field goal made field goal goal everybody sees it if the other guy starts making more field goals has better punts than you people are going to start being like huh other guys pretty good maybe maybe Brad isn't our best option maybe Andre isn't our best option so there's nothing like that on a daily basis having your own competition right before your very eyes everyone else is out there just kind of in the peripheral but you know I I think it's better to use the Joker mentality here you go fight it out so if someone wants to join our team EXA I preferred a different strategy H Bane making an appearance all right I know Jesse is very eager to replay the clip of uh Rich Basia calling me an amazing person but I think we need more time to get into the kickoff change because and again I know you weren't a kickoff specialist but this looks more like a punt the new kickoff than the kickoff it does not look like a kickoff anymore it's designed to be similar to a punt so I want to get into that in the 10:00 hour but I want to ask you about the importance of compartmentalizing as a specialist because I I Andre Carlson was not like God awful but he missed at least one kick in 10 of the final 12 games including the playoff loss and I think based on the conversations that I've had this is not like a Oh Let's Pretend There's competition so we can get our guy right like I think they have doubts about him and he's going to have to earn it