Brayden Narveson might not have been the happiest person in his family when the Green Bay Packers picked him off waivers to be their kicker.
The move was a homecoming for his wife, Shelby Narveson. She grew up in Prescott, Wisconsin, with a family full of Packers fans. Prescott is just east of the Minnesota border and about 270 miles west of Green Bay.
“She’s like, ‘I’m going to be the coolest person in my hometown,’“ Narveson said.
Narveson made 6 of 7 field-goal attempts with a longest kick of 59 yards during a preseason tryout with the Tennessee Titans, who decided to stick with Nick Folk as their kicker this season.
The Packers decided Narveson was a better choice than Anders Carlson and Greg Joseph, who were competing for the position during training camp.
Narveson appreciated the Titans for giving him a chance in the preseason. Even though he was preparing to spend the season on Tennessee’s practice squad, he said Titans officials told him there was a chance he might be picked up by another team.
He ended up with the Packers, which thrilled his wife. The Narvesons got married this summer in Mexico.
“When I called and told her I got claimed by the Packers, she was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’“ Narveson said. “She hung the phone up and called her parents immediately.
So, she was probably more excited than I was but, obviously, very thankful for me, as well.” Narveson will make his NFL regular-season debut on Friday when the Packers start their season against the Philadelphia Eagles in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Even though he hasn’t tried a field goal in a regular NFL game yet, Narveson has made a good first impression on his new team. Packers coach Matt LaFleur said he feels confident about Narveson after seeing him in just two practices.
LaFleur said, “I just like his approach, his mentality. I can’t wait to see what happens in the game.”
Green Bay is the latest team for the well-traveled Narveson, who attended four different schools during his six-year college career. He played two seasons at Iowa State, briefly transferred to San Diego, spent three seasons at Western Kentucky, and finished at N.C. State last year.
Narveson said, “People can look at me and say that, ‘Oh, what is he doing? He’s going to four schools, this, that, and the other.’ But I think it prepared me really, really well.
It was like an NFL journey, you know? You go in, you compete. You go in and compete. Every time I was at a new school, I had to win a whole new audience over. And I had to go compete against new guys, right?
So it just put me in a whole new frame of mind that every single day matters and every single time you step up on the field when you’re between those white lines, you’ve got to be focused and you’ve got to win the job.”
Narveson said that playing at N.C. State last year helped him get ready for the NFL because he had to take over for Christopher Dunn, who had won the Lou Groza Award as the top college kicker the previous year.
He responded by making 18 of 23 field-goal attempts last year and setting a school record with a 57-yarder against Duke.
Now, he’s facing even more pressure as he starts his NFL career with a team aiming for the Super Bowl. The Packers had a very stable kicking situation when Mason Crosby held the job from 2007-22 and became the franchise’s career-leading scorer.
