Packers Cut Roster To 75 and Claim Punter Jacob Schum

The biggest news today was the terrible knee injury to Vikings QB Teddy Bridgewater, which ends his 2016 season before it even begins and puts a question mark on the rest of his NFL career. There is an argument to be made that the Vikings offense might still have a good season if they focus on Adrian Peterson.

Meanwhile the Green Bay Packers had to trim their roster down to 75. From ESPN:

Packers moves: Waived -- DT Demetris Anderson, CB Randall Jette, WR Jamel Johnson, LB Derrick Mathews, P Peter Mortell, WR Ed Williams, WR Harvey Binford. Injured reserve -- TE Kennard Backman, C Jacob Flores, TE Mitchell Henry, Crockett, Walker. Traded -- McCray.

He looked like the lesser punter this preseason and unfortunately the storybook dream of Peter Mortell is not meant to be. None of the other players released had received much playing time this preseason, and I.R. takes care of a couple tough roster decisions, especially with Backman and Josh Walker.

The conditional 7th round pick received for OLB Lerentee McCray might turn out to be nothing if he can't make the Bills 53-man roster, but it's a nice return for a player that only cost them a $50,000 signing bonus and was playing at one of their deeper positions. They would have probably released him if they hadn't made this trade, despite his good preseason performance as a pass rusher.

And surprisingly the Packers also added a new player:

#Packers claim punter Jacob Schum, release Tim Masthay: https://t.co/stLr8YDn4n pic.twitter.com/HSb14e5sDa

— Green Bay Packers (@packers) August 30, 2016

Masthay is coming off a poor 2015 season and he didn't show much improvement this preseason (though he did punt better than Mortell), so taking a chance on Schum doesn't cost them much. But kicking the tires on the comparison of Schum over Masthay doesn't show why this is a good idea. According to Football Outsiders, the Buccaneers were worse at punting in 2015 than the Packers, and Schum had the worst gross punting average in the NFL last season. Bucs head coach Dirk Koetter praised Schum back in February and said the stats don't define him because he can kick it to a certain spot. But I heard the preseason announcers recently saying that McCarthy praised Mortell for his directional punting, and that didn't win Mortell an NFL job. Also, a month after Koetter spoke glowingly of Schum, the Bucs went out and signed free agent Bryan Anger to replace Schum anyway.

While this should be a low risk move to try and upgrade a weak position, the Derrick Frost situation back in 2008 is the counter-argument that they should stay with the punter (Masthay) who they know instead of the possibly inconsistent punter (Schum) they might have just acquired. I wouldn't have minded them going after a punter who was clearly better than Masthay or Mortell, but they don't seem to have found a clearly better punter in Schum. Of course, the market for proven punters is kind of crazy, like trade a 4th round pick crazy, so Schum is probably the best they could have done.

Masthay: This Has Been a Weird Year

Packers P Tim Masthay is beginning to notice that he's punted less (37 times) than anyone else in the league this season.

"This has been a weird, weird year, but particularly weird the past month for me and for our punt team," Masthay recently told The Green Bay Press-Gazette. "Minnesota, the game at Minnesota, was a fairly normal rhythm. We had four punts, and they were scattered throughout the game. At least in my time here, we've never been a team that's punted heavily, because we've always had a strong offense. So having four or five punts a game, scattered, that's kind of the normal."

Masthay has a point, as the Packers have had two games this year in which both they and their opponents never punted. Prior to this season, that had only ever happened once, proving its unusualness. 

Bleacher Report names Tim Masthay NFL's 26th Best Punter

The Popular Sports website Bleacher Report has named the Packers' Tim Masthay the NFL's 26th and the NFC North's 4th Best Punter. As evidence for their claim, BR points out Masthay's inability to work well with a full field and his constant kicking with a low trajectory, something that kills his hang time. 

As his overall score, Masthay was given an 80/100, which, while not great, seems to pretty much be where he is. He's not a star or a failure; he's just okay, something that's good enough when you're on a team with a QB like Aaron Rodgers.

Does Crosby want the Packers to make him earn his job again?

In an article recently published by ESPN Milwaukee, Packers Kicker Mason Crosby, who made a career best 89.2% of his field goal attempts this season, appeared to praise General Manager Ted Thompson's decision to sign another kicker during 2013 training camp, calling it motivation. 

“You know, it was definitely a positive. There was nothing negative about it,” Crosby said. “I think it drove me to compete with myself even more, compete with what I felt like I needed to do and just go out and really battle every day."

So yea, you hear him Thompson. Go get another kicker. 

Punter Tim Masthay Gets Paid

I'm sure this is exactly how Tim Masthay's agent pitched it to his client. You'll be Number 15!

The Green Bay Packers have signed punter Tim Masthay to a four-year contract extension that will make him the 15th highest paid player at his position.

Snark aside, that contract ($5.465 million, $1.2 million signing bonus) sounds about right. The coaches have done a nice job of finding some free talent and turning him into a useful player. And they didn't waste a 3rd round pick trying to solve the problem (cough...B.J. Sander).

But there's nothing extraordinary about him either: he was ranked No. 22 overall last season in net average and Football Outsiders gave him a negative score. Still, it was a nice recovery by Ted Thompson's staff after they made one of their few personnel mistakes: releasing Jon Ryan. Their first two attempts at replacing him with Derrick Frost and Jeremy Kapinos were complete disasters, but the third time was the charm.

They could do better at the position, but as with Mason Crosby, the Packers seem content with a good enough kicker.