The Packers Record with Drafting Kickers Is Mixed
By GilMartin
The Green Bay Packers traded up in the 2026 NFL Draft to select kicker Trey Smack with the final pick in the sixth round of the draft. Smack has a strong leg and enjoyed a fine career at the University of Florida. He was regarded as the best kicker available in this year’s draft. But how have the Packers fared when drafting kickers? Here’s a look at the team’s history with drafted kickers since the merger in 1970.
1970: Skip Butler, Texas-Arlington, Round 4, Pick 96
The Packers struggled at kicker after Don Chandler retired after the 1967 season. One of the many kickers they tried was fourth-round pick Skip Butler.
Butler never played in a regular season game for the Packers, but spent seven seasons in the NFL, primarily with the Houston Oilers. He made 71-of-127 field goal tries and 127-of-133 extra points. His final NFL season came in 1977.
1972: Chester Marcol, Hillsdale, Round 2, Pick 34
The Packers highest pick used on a kicker came in 1972 when they selected Polish-born Chester Marcol in the second round. To say the Packers were desperate to find a kicker at this point would be an understatement. The team used three different kickers in 1971 and made just 14 of 26 field goals.
Marcol made an immediate impact. He led the NFL in field goals and points as a rookie and earned All Pro honors in both 1972 and 1974 when he again led the league in scoring.
Marcol remained with the Packers through the 1980 season. His career took a downturn after a 1975 injury, and he later had addiction issues. His famous blocked kick return for a touchdown against the Bears in 1980 came when he was high on cocaine.
Thankfully, Marcol turned his life around post football and has worked to help others with addiction issues. He was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame in 1987.
1982 Eddie Garcia, SMU, Round 10, Pick 264
The Packers turned to veteran Jan Stenerud as their kicker late in the 1980 season. Stenerud was a very accurate kicker, but he was getting older and his kickoffs were very shallow. With that in mind, the Packers selected Eddie Garcia in the 10th round of the 1982 draft.
Garcia played 12 games for the Packers in 1983 but was a kickoff specialist and didn’t attempt a field goal or an extra point.
The following season, he started as the team’s kicker but lost his job midseason after hitting just 3-of-9 field goals. He also missed an extra point.
Garcia spent time on the practice squads of the Dolphins (1985) and the Bucs (1986) but never played in another regular season game in the NFL. He passed away at the age of 65 in 2025.
1989 Chris Jacke, UTEP, Round Six, Pick 142
The Packers again had problems with kicking in 1988. As a result, they used a sixth-round pick on UTEP kicker Chris Jacke in the 1989 NFL Draft. Jacke helped immediately and became the Packers kicker for the next eight seasons. He was the team’s kicker in their 1996 Super Bowl season.
Jacke made 77.2 percent of his field goals and 98.4 percent of his extra points during his tenure in Green Bay. He topped 100 points in a season three times and went over 90 points on four others.
Jacke finished his career with brief stints in Washington and Arizona. He was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame in 2013.
1997 Brett Conway, Penn State, Round Three, Pick 90
The Packers used a third-round pick on Brett Conway in 1997, but he never made a field goal for the Packers. He suffered an injury in training camp while working on his mechanics. The Packers kept Ryan Longwell instead. The following season, Longwell beat Conway for the job, and he was traded to the Jets.
Conway kicked for five teams in six seasons in the NFL but was only a full-time kicker with Washington for two years. His last NFL campaign came in 2003. Conway made 75.3 percent of his field goal tries in his NFL career.
2007 Mason Crosby, Colorado, Round Six, Pick 193
Mason Crosby established himself as the Packers placekicker in 2007 and kicked the game-winning field goal in his first career NFL game. He also led the league with 141 points that season. It was a good omen because the Colorado product held the kicking job until 2022.
Crosby had a few shaky seasons but always bounced back. He spent 16 seasons with the Packers and remains the team’s all-time leading scorer with 1,918 points. Crosby made 81.4 percent of his field goal tries with the Packers and 97.3 percent of his extra point tries.
He won a Super Bowl ring with the Packers in 2010 and set an NFL record by making 23 consecutive playoff field goals. Crosby will certainly be inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame as soon as he is eligible.
2023 Anders Carlson, Auburn, Round 6, Pick 207
If Crosby was the ultimate success story as a drafted kicker, Anders Carlson never quite panned out. The Auburn star lasted just one season in Green Bay and never found his consistency. Special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia hoped he could help develop Carlson like he did his brother a few seasons earlier with the Raiders, but Carlson never found his groove. He missed eight field goals and eight extra points in his one season in Green Bay. The team parted ways with him before the 2024 season.
Since leaving the Packers, Carlson kicked in games for the 49ers and Jets, but he never lasted more than five games with either team.
He signed a contract last month to play for the Birmingham Stallions of the UFL for 2026.
Now the Packers have selected Smack and even traded up to get him. Will he justify the team’s investment in his leg, or will he be just another footnote in Packers history?
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Comments (22)
GregC
May 02, 2026 at 10:22 am
They were either very good or they completely failed. There are no in-betweeners here. Three good ones and four bad ones. This would be a good batting average if they were all late round picks, but one of them was a second round pick (Chester Marcol), and there were also kickers taken in the 3rd and 4th round, neither of whom panned out. I'm fine with using the last pick of the 6th round on the best kicker available.
Coldworld
May 02, 2026 at 10:35 am
That is surely the nature of picking a role that has such a fine line between great and garbage?
Grandfathered
May 02, 2026 at 10:24 am
A mixed bag indeed. My favorite is Chester. Drafted by Devine, fired by Bart, overcame issues and helps others do the same.
dblbogey
May 02, 2026 at 11:30 am
Chester seems to be remembered as a good kicker. I don't know why, with a 61.7% career success rate and zero made kicks from 50+. Anders Carlson is on Bisaccio. He wanted a 68% college kicker and was going to make him a star.
GregC
May 02, 2026 at 11:40 am
You can't compare kickers from different eras. The standards were way lower back then. I remember when a 50-yard field goal was a big deal, and most coaches didn't attempt them anyway because coaches were all so conservative. On 4th down you punted if you were not within easy field goal range, even if it was 4th and 1.
It was even worse in the 1960s. Paul Hornung's career field goal percentage was 47%.
golfpacker61
May 03, 2026 at 07:46 am
Nate Hobbs also chose the Packers because of his relationship with Rich Bisaccia. 2 bad players and a bad coach.
KenEllis
May 02, 2026 at 11:19 am
Gutey inherited a solid kicker in Mason Crosby. Mason had been the lone solid part of Special Teams for several years.
Chris Jacke and Ryan Longwell were solid prior to Mason.
Since Gutey moved on from Crosby, he has screwed the pooch at the kicking position. Carlson, Joseph, Narveson, and the harasser McManus have all been subpar or worse.
Hopefully, Smack turns that around.
canadapacker
May 03, 2026 at 08:07 pm
Special teams problems has been an issue with the Pack for decades. The issue with place kickers is that it costs games almost immediately - which is easy to blame them and not the Special teams coach. The good thing is that some place kickers can hide some of the special teams issues. Now sometimes kickers are moved on from when they have a few bad results because the ST co-ordinators dont stand up for them. And we all remember moving on from Jon Ryan - he was good for 2 seasons and became a staple for Seattle - I always held this against Ted T = because of course Jon was a Canadian boy. And if I remember we had problem with special teams and changed there a few times
Packer_Fan
May 02, 2026 at 12:54 pm
Can't wait till they use the term "smacked". Hopefully when they beat Chicago. Just hope they don't use it when he misses.
On the serious side, Gute brought in competition at the critical positions. Hope some of the draftees help out this year
PackfanNY
May 02, 2026 at 04:21 pm
The one that stands out to me was Brett Conway. Using a 3rd Round pick on a Kicker that never kicked for you is a pretty big miss. At pick 91 for instance Mike Vrabel who became an All Pro was taken. There were a few others drafted that we could have used.
Starrbrite
May 02, 2026 at 11:38 pm
Yes—what an albatross. When we drafted Conway, I thought, a 3rd rnder for this dude, he’s gonna be Jan Stenerud, but better. Oh-boy—wrong!!
MooPack
May 02, 2026 at 07:21 pm
Looking at this list of Packer drafted picks starting with Marcol, it's been good, bad, good, bad, good, bad. Smack is on the good. Let the trend continue.
Oxymoron 3339
May 02, 2026 at 07:56 pm
Well technically this is the third draft pick that Gute has used on a kicker. So far Carlson failed and now we use two picks on Smack. If we count Punters and long snappers Gute has used 5 draft picks on Special Teamers and so far none of them have been good enough.
Oppy
May 02, 2026 at 08:56 pm
I'm going to do that horrible thing where I leave a comment without reading the article based entirely on the tagline / lede:
The Packers record with drafting every position is mixed, just like every other team in the NFL.
We've probably had slightly more success with WRs than other positions, but that's just a guess.
BuckyBadger
May 02, 2026 at 10:40 pm
Bill Polian is known to have said that he would never draft a kicker because they are usually better with the 2nd team and that is a common trend in the NFL. Packers had Crosby in the draft and that worked out but many kickers had to bounce around a little before they caught on.
I forget what podcast I listened to but it was a Packer one they gave different theories on why the struggle coming out of college but I think the missed on one big point. The competition to get in the NFL as a Punter or kicker is far harder to break into than almost any other competition. There are only 32 and they rarely even keep another one on the practice squad. They also tend to have the longest careers on average. Once you are a reliable kicker teams will hang on to you. That means kick your leg loose and work on your craft while you are packing groceries or selling cell phones. If your drill down on a lot of teams kickers they aren't on their first team or bounced around a few camps before winning a job.
For this draft where I read that many only thought 200 players had a draftable grade I had no problem moving up and getting a kid with a big leg.
Over 2023/2024 seasons
0-19 yards: 0-0
20-29 yards: 10-10
30-39 yards: 11-12 (91.7%)
40-49 yards: 9-13 (69.2%)
50+ yards: 8-10 (80%)
He was also 100-101 extra points over his career for what this is worth in the NFL, probably speaks to being consistent with his swing. The more you do it, the more chances of a shank.
BuckyBadger
May 02, 2026 at 10:46 pm
Now that kids can make some money in college kicking I wonder if the number of guys who can wait out moving on to real life packing groceries and working on their craft will increase? If you have some money already you can spend more time trying to break into the NFL if you are determined and smart.
HarryHodag
May 03, 2026 at 08:01 am
When the team drafted Mason Crosby I remember one of the deciding factors was his ability to kick in cold weather. The ball is a rock when it's below freezing but it still must be done. It's really the only concern I have with a guy from Florida.
I chuckle at the folks who worry that the Packers gave up a lot to draft this guy. Rasheed Walker was a deep exception to this statement but for the most part 7th rounders are not much of a worry. They often float around the bottom of the roster then leave after a couple of years. So losing two 7th rounders from a mediocre draft is no biggy in my world.
What is a biggie is a guy who can make clutch kicks. McManus is a pro but got the 'yips' at the wrong time last year. Smack has kicked in many big games. Kicking in college is a bit easier than the pros, the pros require more targeting kick offs for instance, but the basic mechanics carry through. Smack has proven to be able to kick in tough environments.
So I'm not "Kiperized' enough to think the Packers lost much to draft a kicker. This could be a real blessing. We'll see.
Oxymoron 3339
May 03, 2026 at 08:26 am
I think you forgot about Carrington Valentine. He was drafted in the 7th round and has started 30 games in three years.
I don’t consider him a throw away pick.
HarryHodag
May 03, 2026 at 03:11 pm
Valentine is another exception but I suspect he will be back up when the season starts.
Oxymoron 3339
May 03, 2026 at 08:29 am
I don’t care if we use a late round draft pick on a kicker, just not a Punter or Long Snapper. Using two picks on a kicker is another thing.
HarryHodag
May 03, 2026 at 03:13 pm
I simply don't see it as much lost to get what is considered the best kicker in the draft. If his leg is as strong as they say it is and he's that accurate they might win a few more of the close games.
Plus, how can you go wrong with a guy named 'Smack'?
BuckyBadger
May 04, 2026 at 09:24 am
You don't really kick frozen balls anymore. Those things are kept warm throughout the game post 2000s