At this time last year, Brandon McManus was seen as somewhat of a savior in the eyes of Packer fans. He had just come in and taken over the Packers’ kicking job, and immediately provided the consistency and stability that had been missing since the Packers moved on from Mason Crosby.
The Packers kicked the tires with Anders Carlson in 2023 and Brayden Narveson in 2024, but both experiments ended poorly. Carlson made 80.6% of his field goal attempts, but was only 50% from 40+ yards. Narveson was even worse, only making 70.6% of his kicks. The Packers, a team with playoff aspirations, needed to find a better solution before their kicking woes cost them at the worst time.
Enter Brandon McManus. The Packers brought him in midway through the 2024 season, and he was exactly what the team needed. The veteran came in and went 30/30 (100%) on extra points and 20/21 (95.2%) on field goal attempts – a combined 50/51. Not to mention, he went 3/3 on kicks over 50 yards. His only miss in the regular season was a 46-yard field goal in Week 9 against Detroit. Problem solved, right?
Unfortunately, 2025 has been a much different story for McManus and the Packers. He’s only made 64.7% of his kicks so far. He’s also been battling a quad injury that forced him to miss two games. The shaky performance has raised some concern about whether the Packers can afford to stick with McManus. When special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia was asked about the team’s confidence in McManus, Bisaccia shot back, “Why not the confidence in Brandon?”
A Tale of Two Seasons
There’s no denying that McManus was superb in 2024. He came in and completely stabilized a position that was craving it. His performance last year earned him a three-year, $15.3 million contract to stay in Green Bay. His average annual value of $5.1 million is the seventh-highest amongst all NFL kickers. The contract included $5 million guaranteed. It was a strong contract for the 34-year-old McManus.
It’s also possible that McManus’s 2024 season was an anomaly. McManus has been a much different kicker in 2025. While he has been battling a quad injury, he hasn’t performed well. He’s missed a kick in seven out of his last eight games. He’s only 3/9 on kicks 40+ yards, including his embarrassing shank to end Monday night’s game against Philadelphia.
Stats can sometimes be deceiving for kickers. If a team repeatedly has their kick attempt kicks from 55+ yards and he misses a handful of them, his field goal percentage is going to look worse. That’s not the case with McManus, though. McManus has missed two kicks from 55+, but most of his misses are coming within 50 yards. That’s just simply not good enough in today’s NFL.
- McManus’s Last 8 Games
- Wild Card Round: 2/3 – missed from 38 yards
- Week 1: 5/5
- Week 2: 5/6 – missed from 48 yards
- Week 3: 2/3 – blocked from 43 yards
- Week 4: 6/7 – missed extra point
- Week 8: 5/7 – missed from 57 yards and 44 yards
- Week 9: 3/4 – missed from 43 yards
- Week 10: 1/2 – missed from 64 yards
Sorting Through Mixed Messages
On November 3, Matt LaFleur shared that the team was still sticking with Brandon McManus at kicker, despite still working through his quad injury. “That is the plan,” LaFleur said when asked.
A few days later, LaFleur changed course and alluded to a potential kicker competition. “Every time it’s a competitive situation. We’re gonna have both guys kick today and see where Brandon is at (in terms of health),” LaFleur said. “We’ll go with who gives us the best opportunity to compete and win.”
Those comments hinted at the possibility of the Packers turning to Lukas Havrisik to kick for them until McManus returned to full health. But in the following days, both Rich Bisaccia and Matt LaFleur publicly stated McManus would be the kicker. “You look at the total body of work,” LaFleur said. “You guys probably read into what I said a little too much.”
Despite McManus’s struggles this season, all of the coaches express the utmost confidence in McManus whenever asked. Matt LaFleur was asked about still having confidence in McManus, to which he replied, “I do, absolutely. Because I see it every day.”
The problem is that it’s hard to believe anything that’s being said. LaFleur went so far as to say that the team would go with whoever gave them the best chance to compete and win. That clearly isn’t the guy who has missed a kick in every game since Week 1. Whether it’s the injury or something else, McManus is lacking the leg strength to kick from further than 50 yards. Continuing to roll out McManus is the exact opposite of giving the team the best opportunity to win.
After missing another kick on Monday night, LaFleur was asked again if McManus would remain the kicker. LaFleur reaffirmed the team’s plan to have McManus be the guy. “We’re confident in Brandon,” LaFleur shared. “I would say the day-to-day that we experience and watch and evaluate across the street. We’re going to put more stock into the practice. Ultimately, you have to go out there and perform on gameday.”
Looking for Answers
It’s hard to pinpoint where McManus’s struggles are stemming from. Could it be the quad injury? Maybe. Troy Aikman shared on the Monday Night Football broadcast that this past week was the first that McManus felt healthy. If that is the case, why didn’t the Packers shut him down and let him have time to recover? He could’ve even spent four weeks on injured reserve before coming back, giving the Packers more roster flexibility.
It’s also possible that McManus’s struggles aren’t related to the quad injury at all. Before the 2025 season, McManus had never finished with a higher field goal percentage than 85.7%, and that was all the way back in 2015. He has a career field goal percentage of 81.4%. Also, McManus has only made 96.9% of his extra point attempts since extra points were moved back to the 15-yard line. 2024 was the outlier. Maybe this is the real version of McManus as a kicker.
The Packers don’t need to look far for an alternative option. They have a second kicker on the roster already, one who broke the record for the longest field goal in Packer history and is 10/10 on kicks this season. “Lucas is a really good, young, up-and-coming kicker as well,” LaFleur said. “Fortunately, we have the flexibility within our roster to carry two.”
Regardless of where the struggles are coming from, the Packers can’t afford to keep deploying a kicker who is more than likely going to miss a kick every week. The answer isn’t clear, but the problem is real, and it needs a solution. At 5-3-1, the Packers can’t afford to lose another game because they are missing kicks and leaving points off the scoreboard.
