Mason Crosby‘s free agency stay will end Wednesday. The longtime Packers kicker, who has been invited to multiple workouts this season, found a gig in Los Angeles. The Rams are signing the 16-year veteran, Mike Garafolo of NFL.com tweets.
The Rams will stash Crosby on their practice squad, continuing a trend for established veterans during this CBA, but Garafolo adds the intention is to move the seasoned specialist to the active roster in the near future. The Rams have used rookie Lucas Havrisik as their kicker over the past several weeks.
One of Crosby’s in-season workouts took place in L.A. this season. In October, the Rams moved on from Brett Maher and bumped Havrisik up from their practice squad. Before making the latter move, the team tried out a host of kickers. Crosby joined Randy Bullock, Austin Seibert and Matthew Wright in that audition. The team viewed Havrisik as a workable option at that point. Several weeks later, Crosby will come back to California as competition.
On the season, Havrisik is 7-for-10 on field goals and has made 10 of 11 PAT attempts. The rookie has missed field goals in each of the Rams’ past two games. Should Crosby have the chance to kick for the Rams, he will be their third kicker this season. The team has trotted out Havrisik over the past five games, doing so after Maher — a late-summer pickup who became available once the Broncos traded for Wil Lutz — suited up for seven contests.
It sounds like the Rams want to create a competition this week. Sean McVay said (via the Orange County Register’s Adam Grosbard) the veteran is a candidate to be elevated this week. For the time being, however, Havrisik is staying on L.A.’s 53-man roster.
Signing four Packers contracts from 2007-20, Crosby joined Aaron Rodgers as Green Bay mainstays. The NFC North team bid farewell to both this offseason, trading Rodgers and drafting Anders Carlson to replace Crosby. While the 39-year-old kicker experienced some rocky moments with the Packers, he kicked in 23 playoff games and helped the team win Super Bowl XLV 13 years ago. Last season, Crosby made 86.2% of his field goal tries, bouncing back after connecting on 73.5% of his attempts in 2021.
The Rams obviously present much friendlier confines for kickers compared to the Packers, with Matt Gay using the SoFi Stadium environment to score the league’s second-most lucrative kicker deal (from the Colts) in free agency. While Gay ranks fifth in all-time field goal accuracy rate (87.3%), Crosby is just 56th (81.4%), as modern kickers flood the top of that list. Looking to cut costs this offseason, the Rams passed on re-signing Gay and have gone with rookies at kicker and punter. Now in contention for a wild-card spot, McVay’s team will bring in a proven vet to help out.
If Crosby doesn’t produce the desired results the Rams may have to bring Stills, Nash & Young in for a workout.