Green Bay, Wisconsin – It’s better late than never, but the Green Bay Packers will have a kicking combination. According to a source, they have signed former Georgia standout Jack Podlesny to compete against Anders Carlson.
Podlesny was voted SEC Special Teams Player of the Year during his senior season with the Bulldogs, making 26-of-31 field-goal attempts and 73-of-74 point-after attempts; two of the missed field goals occurred in the Bulldogs’ playoff victory over Ohio State. Approximately two-thirds of his kickoffs were touchbacks. Podlesny, not Carlson, was the first-team All-SEC kicker.
In three seasons, he made 82.4 percent of his field goals, but only 56.5 percent from 40 or more yards. To finish off his freshman year, he hit a 53-yard field goal to defeat Cincinnati in the Peach Bowl.
“Trotting out there, I was trying to treat it like any other kick,” Podlesny explained of the winning kick. “To be honest, I don’t recall much of what happened because I blacked out during the encounter.
“I was thinking about it the other day, and something I’ve always discussed with my sports psychologist is to put yourself in situations you’ve been in previously and remember that experience, because a positive experience can lead to another. Just thinking about looking up after I hit that, and I knew I hit a clean ball, so I was like, ‘It better go in,’ and watching it split the posts, I was overjoyed.”
Podlesny was undrafted and spent the offseason and first half of training camp with the Minnesota Vikings. He did not attempt any kicks during the preseason.
Carlson was Green Bay’s sixth-round pick this season. He made his first 17 kicks, including field goals and extra points, but then slipped into a slump from which he was unable to recover. He missed a league-high 11 kicks during the regular season, followed by an extra point in the wild-card win against Dallas and a field goal in the divisional round defeat to San Francisco.
“I think there’s a lot to learn,” Carlson said after the loss. “It’s hard for me to see these guys because I know how hard they work. I just want to put them in the best possible position. Simply thinking about them and working for them.
Carlson only had one competitor throughout his debut season. Before the draft last year, they signed Parker White, a former South Carolina kicker. 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 alone, even though it had to be on everyone’s mind that Carlson’s kick-a-game habit could cost them dearly.
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