GREEN BAY − So much for a kicking competition in training camp.
After paying Brandon McManus a $1 million roster bonus in March, the Green Bay Packers are releasing him. The Packers still have Lucas Havrisik on their roster, but McManus’ release clears a path for Trey Smack to win the job in his rookie season.
The Packers traded a pair of seventh-round picks in last month’s NFL draft to select Smack at the end of the sixth round. Smack, a three-year starter at Florida, was the only kicker selected in this year’s draft. Smack made 83% of his field goals with the Gators, including 10 of 13 from at least 50 yards.
“Straight ball, accuracy,” Packers special-teams coordinator Cam Achord said of Smack. “His ball doesn’t move a lot. For me, I don’t need a guy − and I’ve been blessed to coach a lot of guys that are really good − I don’t need a guy that can kick it 65 yards, personally. I want the guy that’s going to put it through consistently from 58, 55.”
McManus stabilized the Packers kicking position after being signed midway through 2024, but he struggled returning from a quad injury on his kicking leg last season. His three missed kicks in the playoffs at Chicago left 7 points off the board in what became a 4-point wild-card round loss to the Bears.
After returning from injury, McManus struggled getting the timing back on his kicks, eventually leading to his trajectory missing unexpectedly left. McManus had made 32 straight kicks entering the playoffs, but he missed a 55-yard field goal before halftime and a fourth-quarter extra point wide left. On his third, a 44-yard field goal attempt with less than 3 minutes to play, McManus overcompensated and pushed the kick wide right.
In a thank-you message to the Packers, the fans and his teammates, McManus wrote:
“From the moment I arrived, you welcomed me and my family with open arms and made us feel at home. The support, kindness, and passion you’ve shown mean more than words can express.
“The environment at Lambeau Field is truly incredible. There’s nothing like running out of that tunnel and seeing an entire community united by love for this team. The energy, the pride, the tradition – it’s something special.
“To be part of a franchise with such a rich history and tradition is an honor. The legacy of this organization inspires me every single day.
“Thank you for trusting me, believing in me, and giving me the chance to be part of something so special.”
It’s possible a healthy McManus could regain his timing this fall, but the Packers targeted Smack as the best college kicker in this year’s draft. When general manager Brian Gutekunst’s seventh-round board dried up, he aggressively pursued improving his kicking position. The move reenters the Packers in the land of rookie kickers, an area they struggled to stabilize after turning the page from Mason Crosby.
The team failed to find their next kicker when they drafted Anders Carlson with a sixth-round pick in 2023, and Brayden Narveson struggled preceded McManus’ arrival one year later.
“You’ve got to keep trying, right?” Gutekunst said after drafting Smack.
After the draft, Gutekunst foreshadowed a kicking competition looming in camp, leaving open the possibility McManus requested his release. But the Packers were under no obligation to do so after paying his $1 million roster bonus this spring. McManus also was under contract in 2027.
“We obviously liked him quite a bit,” Gutekunst said of Smack, “and think he has a good chance to be a good kicker in the National Football League. But the way the board was falling, where we were sitting in the seventh round I didn’t feel great about what we were going to have to select during those two picks and didn’t feel great he’d be there then, so we made the decision to do that.”
This article originally appeared on Packers News: Packers to cut kicker Brandon McManus after drafting Trey Smack
Reporting by Ryan Wood, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Packers News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
