The Green Bay Packers added kicker Jack Podlesny, a rookie free agency, to their offseason 90-man roster on Wednesday, the organization said.
Less than a week after Anders Carlson’s heartbreaking 41-yard miss in the Packers’ 24-21 divisional-round playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers, a new leg is on the way to Wisconsin.
Podlesny (pronounced pod-LEZ-knee) is a first-year player who joined the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted rookie but was released last summer.
Podlesny, a two-time national champion at Georgia, will face Carlson, a 2023 sixth-round pick from Auburn, for the starting position in 2024.
Carlson led the NFL in missed extra-point attempts and had at least one missed kick in 10 of the Packers’ last 12 games (including the playoffs), but Podlesny will start over in Green Bay.
Over three seasons at Georgia, the former Bulldog hit 60 of 73 field goals (82.2%) and 182 of 184 extra-point tries (98.9%), earning first-team All-SEC accolades in his last season.
Packers coach Matt LaFleur, who recently made news for a comment regarding Carlson that was allegedly taken out of context, addressed his team’s kicker dilemma during an end-of-season press conference.
“We want competition at every position, so we’re always going to bring in competition,” LaFleur told a news conference on Monday. “I’m a firm believer that competition brings out the best in one another.”
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