Packers cut kicker Rayner

[Zero2Cool]

By Rob Demovsky
[email protected]

The Green Bay Packers have decided to go with rookie Mason Crosby as their kicker and have released incumbent Dave Rayner.

Rayner told the Press-Gazette this afternoon that he had been released after the team made several attempts to trade him.

“They said it was the hardest decision they had to make at any position,” Rayner said when reached on his cell phone. “It was one of those things where I don’t think I could have done any more. I was fighting an uphill battle the whole way after the draft.”

Rayner won the kicking job last summer over veteran Billy Cundiff and made 26 of 35 field goals during the regular season, but General Manager Ted Thompson shook up the special teams when he drafted Crosby out of Colorado in the sixth round of April’s draft.

“Who knows, maybe I’ll be back here someday,” Rayner said. “You never know if he’s the guy long-term or a quick fix.”

The Packers are expected to announce their cuts in a few hours. The NFL deadline for reducing rosters to 53 players is 5 p.m., Central time.

 

[spardo62]

Good attitude, good guy and good kicker. He very well may be back someday the way kickers can sometimes be up and down. However, what we have seen out of Crosby in PS makes me think he is up to the task mentally and physically and could establish himself as a fixture in GB.

 

[Greg C.]

I wonder what he means when he says he was fighting an uphill battle ever since the draft. He made fewer field goals than Crosby in practice. If he made more, he would've won the job. I wonder if Crosby got the good holder (John Ryan) more often than Rayner did.

The part about Crosby possibly being a "quick fix" is pretty bitter too, but it's hard to blame him for being bitter after all his effort and good performance in training camp amounted to nothing. On the other hand, if his kicking hadn't faltered late last season, Crosby never would've been drafted.

 

[Zero2Cool]

The uphill battle I believe is him saying he felt that by using a draft pick that he had little to no chance of making the team.

I didn't want to lose either of them, but understood we couldn't keep two.

Both appear to be good kickers.

 

[Greg C.]

I like Rayner and all, but finishing 29th in the league in field goal percentage last year just doesn't cut it. And if he was the one who made 86% of his field goal attempts in the preseason and Crosby had made 81%, I'm guessing Rayner would still be here.

 

[cheesey]

We will see if "Bing" (my name for Crosby) will be up to the task when Lambeau field is frozen! I HOPE he is!!!
He has plenty of leg, but can he be accurate?