Kicker Sam Ficken could push Packers veteran Mason Crosby

GREEN BAY - At the NFL scouting combine in February, Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said he didn’t feel the need to create competition for veteran placekicker Mason Crosby — but he allowed that “if the right guy was there we’d consider that.”

The right guy became available Monday when veteran Sam Ficken came across the waiver wire from Seattle, and the Packers claimed him.

Ficken, 26, was a second-team All-Big Ten selection at Penn State in 2014 and went undrafted in 2015. Since then he has spent time on the Jacksonville (2016), Kansas City (2017) and Seattle (2019) practice squads while kicking for the Los Angeles Rams in 2017-18 when regular kicker Greg Zuerlein was sidelined.

Ficken was just 3-for-6 on field goal attempts with a long of 34 yards in four career games with the Rams across those two seasons. He was 14-for-15 on extra points.

There is some institutional familiarity with Ficken, as first-year Packers head coach Matt LaFleur was the Rams’ offensive coordinator in 2017. Scouting-wise, Seahawks general manager John Schneider was part of the Packers’ personnel department, along with Gutekunst, from 2002-09.