GREEN BAY, Wis. -- A couple of teams who brought multiple kickers to training camp this year already have made their decisions.
On Monday morning, the Buffalo Bills waived veteran Rian Lindell and gave the job to rookie Dustin Hopkins.
Last week, the Miami Dolphins cut veteran Dan Carpenter in favor of rookie Caleb Sturgis.
In both cases, the writing had been on the wall for the veterans because Hopkins and Sturgis were draft picks.
The Green Bay Packers made an early decision on their kicker in 2006 when they dumped Billy Cundiff after the first preseason game and gave the job to Dave Rayner. However, a year later they waited until the end of the preseason to pick Mason Crosby over Rayner.
It looks like the Packers are going to follow the latter path this year. Coach Mike McCarthy indicated after Saturday’s preseason game at St. Louis that he planned to let the competition between Crosby and first-year kicker Giorgio Tavecchio go on for at least another week leading up to Friday’s preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks.
“We’ll continue to let those guys battle it out,” McCarthy said. “We’ll try to kick them as much as we can on a six-day week leading up to Seattle.”
While Tavecchio has been better in practice/scrimmage situations, making 37-of-41 kicks compared to 32-of-41 for Crosby, he missed a 49-yarder against the Rams and went 1-for-2. Crosby went 3-for-3 against the Rams.
The Packers have practices scheduled for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week.
