Interesting times in Green Bay, Wisconsin. A year after moving on from Aaron Rodgers, the Packers found a way to make it all the way to the divisional round of the playoffs in year one of Jordan Love. The only unfortunate part of this young team’s incredible season was the kicking game. Rookie kicker Anders Carlson missed a total of 11 attempts, including a key miss down the stretch against the 49ers in Green Bay’s divisional round loss.

With Green Bay in win-now mode, they cannot afford to have a struggling kicker. According to Bill Huber of Sports Illustrated, the Packers were on the cusp of signing an unnamed veteran kicker to compete with Carlson. However, the kicker, who is an established veteran that has multiple years of NFL experience, decided against signing with the Packers in favor of another team.

It’s very clear that GM Brian Gutekunst, head coach Matt LaFleur, and special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia want the field goal game to be a whole lot better in 2024. The case could be made that Carlson’s play was the difference between Green Bay making a Super Bowl run and falling short. Of course, the latter option ended up being true.

Competition is great because it makes every single player and coach better. The fact that Gutekunst is going out and looking for veteran kickers should make Packers fans very happy. If he finds one, Carlson and that kicker will fight for the starting job. Whoever wins that matchup should be a lot better than Carlson was a year ago.