The NFL’s annual League meetings have wrapped up in Orlando, Florida and the Green Bay Packers finished their stay by signing a veteran kicker. Former Minnesota Vikings kicker Greg Joseph has been brought on board to push Anders Carlson to push a few more kicks between the uprights. Last year’s sixth round draft choice from Auburn made his share of big kicks but he led the league with 13 missed field goals and extra points. Joseph entered the league as an undrafted free agent and after bouncing around with stops in Cleveland, Carolina, Tennessee and Tampa Bay, he landed with the Vikings in 2021. The Johannesburg, South Africa native played three seasons with Minnesota and set the franchise record with a career long 61 yard field goal in 2022. For his career, he’s 100 of 121 on field goals (82.2%) and he’s also missed a dozen extra points. The Vikings decided not to renew his contract which paid him 2.4 million dollars last year but hoped to re-sign him. Instead, Joseph, who will turn 30 in August, will come in and compete with a young kicker the Packers still have high hopes for.
Head Coach Matt LaFleur sat down with local reporters for a breakfast session in Orlando on Tuesday morning. He covered plenty of ground in his 35 minute session, discussing the additions of Josh Jacobs and Xavier McKinney in free agency along with the welcome return of veterans like A.J. Dillon and Keisean Nixon. Letting Jones walk to Minnesota in free agency was a tough decision said LaFleur who also acknowledged the locker room leadership void with his departure. LaFleur said he’s been in contact a lot this off-season with Jordan Love and believes the quarterback is ready to take on more responsibility in that regard. The Head Coach said the off-season conditioning and weight training program will start on April 15.
NFL owners approved several rule and administrative changes this week. The kickoff play is most notable, taking the cue from the XFL for the new formation which will encourage more returns. Just 22% of kickoffs were returned last season in the NFL. The Packers were one of three teams to vote against the change even though they have the two time All-Pro kick returner on their roster in Nixon. Replays will now be utilized for help in officiating intentional grounding calls, roughing the passer penalties and illegal hits out of bounds. Suggested by the Pittsburgh Steelers, the NFL also agreed to move back the trade deadline to the Tuesday after Week 9 of the regular season.
The league also announced they will play a doubleheader on Christmas Day in December, even though it falls on a Wednesday this year. The teams that play on the holiday will have games on Saturday the week prior, giving them the same amount of time to prepare as the established Sunday to Thursday weeks.
The opening weekend of the season will have the Philadelphia Eagles serve as the home team for the NFL’s first ever game in Brazil. Packers President Mark Murphy said on Tuesday Green Bay and Cleveland are the two finalists for the Philadelphia opponent in what will be a Friday night game on opening weekend in Sao Paolo. The 2024 schedule is expected to released by early May.
Murphy also confirmed that negotiations between the Packers and the City of Green Bay on a lease extension for Lambeau Field have broken off. While there’s no sense of urgency, the current lease still has nine years to run, Murphy would certainly like a long term extension in place before he steps down as President in 2025. He said he was disappointed in Mayor Eric Genrich’s decision to break off discussions. The city claims the Packers have offered a lease amount that is less than what they’re paying now under the agreement. Murphy countered by saying the team is not asking for any public money from the city, all of the improvements made to the stadium are funded by the team. He says the club has already spent over 600 million dollars on improvements since the original expansion and redevelopment of the property. Murphy said the team would be approaching 1.5 billion in improvements by the time the current lease expires and with the negotiations now on hold, the Packers are also putting on hold the next phase of construction planned for this year, an 80 million dollar project to improve concourses and concession areas. By not moving forward, Murphy said the stalled negotiations will impact the fan experience at Lambeau Field.
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