The fact that the Packers already have 3 kickers on the current roster and brought in Bates, leads me to believe that none of those 3 are hitting it out of the park.
At the same time, it's not hard to understand why Gutekunst would want to have a look at a leg that banged a 64-yard gamewinner and then a 62 in back to back games. 4 yards and 6 yards longer than our century-old team's franchise record.
It would almost be a no-brainer for
any team with less-than-elite kicking to not fly him across the lake and at least sneak a peek, and for a team with a bona-fide kicking problem (like for instance, Green Bay), it'd constitute borderline negligence.
But then again - later in the day, Green Bay cut Joseph and immediately
signed the
Lion's backup kicker who had been displaced an hour earlier by Detroit bringing in Bates. So... yeah.... this does not sound like a team that is confident they already have their 2024 kicker on the team.
I feel sorry for Carlson. He clearly knows his team is going to a lot of trouble trying to find someone to replace him, and that has to be getting inside his head every time he sets up to kick the ball.