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Anders Carlson is in his first season as the starting kicker for the Green Bay Packers. The rookie has been tasked with the difficult challenge of replacing Mason Crosby, who served in this position for the past 16 seasons without missing a single game. He also had plenty of experience in clutch moments, including in the NFL playoffs.
Crosby has a stellar success rate in his postseason career, converting on 89% of his field goal attempts and 100% of his extra point attempts in 23 career playoff games. His reliability in this area was greatly missed during the Divisional round this year when Carlson was called upon in an unfamiliar clutch spot for a rookie.
In the fourth quarter of their game against the San Francisco 49ers, the Green Bay Packers held a four-point lead. They lined up for a field goal attempt to potentially take a seven-point lead, but Carlson missed a 41-yarder. The miss proved to be the difference in the final score after the 49ers marched down the field for a game-winning touchdown on the following drive for a three-point victory.
Theoretically, if Carlson had converted his relatively easy field goal attempt, Green Bay could have gotten the ball back in a tie game rather than trailing on the scoreboard. Many Packers fans were extremely frustrated by this, directly blaming their kicker for being eliminated from the playoffs this year. Here's what some of them are saying on X:
Even head coach Matt LaFleur insulted his kicker, having this to say about Carlson:
"When he goest out there, I just pray."
It has been a rough season for Carlson, who has now already missed seven field goals and six extra points, with one of each coming during the NFL playoffs. This has resulted in many Packers fans expressing how much they miss Mason Crosby and that their rookie kicker is not as good as his brother Daniel Carlson, who has been extremely efficient with the Las Vegas Raiders.
While the postseason misses surely jump out due to the magnitude of the games, accuracy has been an issue for Anders Carlson all season long. He has statistically been one of the least reliable kickers during the 2023 NFL season.
How efficient was Anders Carlson in 2023?
During the 2023 NFL season, Anders Carlson missed a total of 13 attempts, the most of any kicker this year. His percentages tell an ugly story for his rookie season, as he ranks toward the bottom of the league in conversion rate.
He ranked just 26th in field goal percentage and 30th in extra point percentage among all qualified kickers this season.
