Unlike years past where the Green Bay Packers have allowed pending free agents to remain unsigned down to the wire, general manager Ted Thompson has already gotten a jump start on the offseason by locking up two crucial defensive players: Michael Daniels (extended in December) and Letroy Guion (Friday).
Last year, they let receiver Randall Cobb and tackle Bryan Bulaga come within hours of hitting the open market. Talk about a sigh of relief.
Expect this trend to continue as Thompson now turns his attention on kicker Mason Crosby in advance of the new league year which kicks off on March 9. Starting March 7, looming free agents can enter into negotiations with other teams. Of course, teams have the option to use the franchise tag starting on Tuesday.
That seems unlikely for Green Bay. Thompson has only resorted to the tag twice in his Packers career: 2008 with Corey Williams (who was then traded) and 2010 with Ryan Pickett, who signed a long-term deal soon after.
There's no reason why Thompson can't get a deal done with Crosby's agent, Mike McCartney, starting next week when the two meet at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis.
Crosby was one of the best kickers in the NFL last season, converting 24 of 28 attempts in the regular season and setting an NFL record with 20 consecutive made playoff field goals. Since 2012 he has routinely hit more than 85 percent of his kicks.
Green Bay isn't looking to go back to square one with a rookie replacement.
"Well, I think Number 1, you can find a guy that can kick the football through them steel poles," Packers special teams coach Ron Zook said via ESPN.com. "But how they're going to handle this environment? How they're going to handle pressure situations? That's something, particularly a young guy, you don't know until he's put in that situation. I mean you get feelings, and you try to go back through his past, and that kind of thing. How does he handles those kind of situations? How does he handle when he misses one? All those kind of things.
"But I think what Mason has done, in talking to him [shortly after the season], I said 'Whatever you did in preparation last year, you need to do exactly the same thing.' Because when he does have an issue -- a little issue, and he really didn't have issues -- but we'll talk about and he'll tell me 'This is what happened, this is what happened.' He knows exactly what happened. He knows exactly what he needs to do to fix it and he does it, and I think that's the thing. He's got a lot of confidence, and he knows he can do what he has to do."
To Crosby's credit, he's not looking to escape the harsh winters of Wisconsin or shy away from the challenges of kicking in such cold weather.
"Obviously [after] nine years, this has become home for me and my family and this is the team I want to play for," Crosby said shortly after the season. "And I hope we can get something done so I can continue on and continue to be part of this organization. I don't know if I can go anywhere else that there's the opportunities that are presented here. The teammates, the friendships, the relationships I have in this locker room. It's kind of weird to think about being anywhere else, but we'll go through that process now that the season's over and kind of start down that path."
