Packers Sign First-Year Punter Cody Mandell

The Packers brought in competition for incumbent punter Tim Masthay on Monday.

Punter Cody Mandell in training camp with the Dallas Cowboys in July 2014—Jayne Kamin-Oncea, USA TODAY Sports.

Punter Cody Mandell in training camp with the Dallas Cowboys in July 2014—Jayne Kamin-Oncea, USA TODAY Sports.

Just a week after the Packers season came to a close and punter Tim Masthay took a step backwards in his fifth NFL season, Green Bay brought in some offseason competition in the form of first-year punter Cody Mandell, signing him to a contract on Monday.

Terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed.

Coming out the University of Alabama, Mandell was originally signed as an undrafted free agent with the Dallas Cowboys this past offseason.

Mandell won two national championships with the Crimson Tide in 2012 and 2013. As a senior, he was named first-team All-Southeastern Conference by the Associated Press and was a semifinalist for the Ray Guy Award and Burlsworth Trophy.

For his career, Mandell averaged 42.6 yards per punt and landed 58 punts inside the 20-yard line.

With the Cowboys, Mandell participated in just one preseason game—their first against the San Diego Chargers—punting three times, averaging 43.7 yards per kick (42.0 net) and placing all three inside the 20.

Signed to a reserve/future contract, Mandell will count against the Packers 90-man offseason roster.

The signing of Mandell comes on the heels of one of Masthay's statistically worst seasons, putting up a career-low 37.0 net average and 14 punts inside the 20, the fewest of any team in the NFL.

Under contract through 2016, it wouldn't appear the Packers are giving up on Masthay. The Kentucky product is scheduled to make $1.0 million in 2015 and $1.2 million in 2016 with salary-cap hits of $1.34 million and $1.54 million in each of those respective years.

If the Packers were to release Masthay, he would still count $480,000 against the salary cap in 2015 and $240,000 in 2015.

The move to bring in another specialist is reminiscent the 2013 season when the Packers brought in Giorgio Tavecchio to push incumbent kicker Mason Crosby, who was coming off a poor 2012 campaign.

Mandell will wear No. 9 with the Packers.

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Comments (6)

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PackersPlanet's picture

January 26, 2015 at 06:33 pm

Man, Masthay has been solid all these years up until midseason. I would not give up on him. If you want to talk about players I've given up on its Brandon Bostick. No way I will ever be able to cheer for that guy. Chokers don't stop choking. Cut him

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Amanofthenorth's picture

January 27, 2015 at 02:43 am

Boo

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Victoria LeJeune's picture

January 26, 2015 at 06:42 pm

It never hurts to have a good back up. Please, re-sign Cobb, and bring back Raji, if he is well.

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RCPackerFan's picture

January 27, 2015 at 11:28 am

Masthay had said that he lost confidence late in the season/playoffs.
What worked for Crosby a couple of years ago was bringing in the competition to force Crosby to figure himself out. Hopefully the same works for Masthay this year.

It hasn't been brought up, but under his reign Slocum has had 2 kickers lose confidence in themselves. I understand I want to blame Slocum for everything till they get rid of him, but is a reason for the loss of confidence?

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JimTaylor31's picture

January 27, 2015 at 01:50 pm

Mandell is pretty good. He can pull a rubber surgical glove over his head and blow it up. Not sure if can punt with the glove on his head though.

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HankScorpio's picture

January 27, 2015 at 05:33 pm

I've hated those years when they just let Masthay and Crosby sit comfortably at their locker stalls all offseason.

I expect Masthay will bounce back and have a better 2015. Competition brings out the best in players.

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