Like always, Crosby has had rough patches that bring things down. Outside of that he's been a pretty reliable kicker and last year was a complete **** show. Blocking, snapping, holding, i'm not sure I can judge the kicking by anything other than what he's been in the past.
To give a comparison of kicking to other sports, the kicker is a lot like the pitcher in baseball. Like it or not, the snapper and holder in football are mimicked by the catcher in baseball. If you ask all the great pitchers of all time, they will name one, two, maybe three catchers that they felt the most confidence with being behind the plate. It's how they managed the flow of the game, how they called the pitches, how they set targets, and everything about how they played the position.
Why is it this way? Because a pitcher, just like a kicker, needs to know that they can shut out everything from their mind except kicking the ball, or throwing it. The rest is cared for by others that they can trust. There were even catchers, over the course of history in baseball, who really weren't good enough to be a regular in major league baseball, but were kept on teams, and used only on the days that they caught a super star pitcher, who wanted them back there.
In football, coaches and front offices don't seem to give a rip about that. They simply say; "Make it work." When it fails, people of course turn against the kicker, and want them replaced.
Look at Adam Vinatieri, who played 10 seasons with the Patriots, and 14 with the Colts. The Pats figured he was all through, and let him walk. The Colts signed him and he upped his FG percentage by about 5 points for the second part of his career, because he was kicking indoors half the time. His last three years were down hill, granted, but he was 47 years old when he played his last season. Based on that fact, and the fact that Crosby is a health freak, he could be a steady competitor for a few more years. But, my bet is, it won't be in GB, and a lot of people who want to see him going are going to be mad because the new kicker sucks and we're watching Mason having a few good years somewhere else.
Kicking is as much psychological as it is physical. It's like pitching in baseball. I've watched guys struggle for two or three years, and then explode as a star, or lose it, when they've been a star, simply because of how it plays out in their heads. They're doing nothing different in their delivery, or any part of throwing the ball, except that intangible inside is letting them put that baseball into small spots at the plate where it's near impossible to hit, based on how you're standing in there. For the hitters, it too is psychological as much as physical. You go into a slump, and you stay in the slump, as long as you think inside that you're in a slump. The moment you let that go, you start getting hits.
