Green Bay Packers kicker Brandon McManus missed his first two field goal attempts on Sunday Night Football against the Pittsburgh Steelers this week, leading to questions about whether he was 100 percent
for the game. McManus hadn’t kicked in a game in a month due to a quad injury, leading to Lucas Havrisik — who was inactive against the Steelers — filling in for duty.
According to head coach Matt LaFleur, though, McManus’ misses didn’t happen because of his health. When asked about the questions surrounding McManus’ quad, LaFleur responded, “Kickers miss kicks. That’s what I can tell you.”
Per LaFleur, the 57-yard field goal attempt was on the edge of McManus’ range, but the Packers elected to attempt the field goal anyway due to the 4th and 10 from the 39-yard-line situation. LaFleur said he didn’t want to go for a 4th and long there, but he didn’t think about punting, either.
The missed field goal put the Steelers in advantageous field position. On their next drive, they only had to move the ball 21 yards for a Chris Boswell field goal.
For what it’s worth, McManus’ long during his tenure with Green Bay was a 56-yard field goal, but McManus did hit a 61-yarder with the Denver Broncos in 2021. Notably, Havrisik hit the franchise record 61-yard field goal last week against the Arizona Cardinals.
McManus also missed a 44-yard field goal wide left on the last play of the first half. On the season, McManus is now two of six on field goals 40 yards or longer. Remember, you add 18 yards to every kick because of the end zone (10 yards) and the kick point from the line of scrimmage (8 yards back). So he’s missed two-thirds of his kicks that weren’t at least on the edge of the red zone.
Beyond the kicking situation, LaFleur also touched on why cornerback Nate Hobbs, the team’s big $48 million free-agent signing this offseason, was benched. Hobbs was the full-time starter for several weeks, but was completely replaced by Carrington Valentine on Sunday.
On that topic, LaFleur said that the week of practice helped make that decision clear, and that competition at outside cornerback would continue between Valentine, Hobbs and Keisean Nixon. With the Packers losing rookie draft pick Micah Robinson to the Tennessee Titans on Monday, the only other cornerbacks in practice for Green Bay — including the practice squad — are receiver convert Bo Melton and Kamal Hadden. Neither Melton nor Hadden has ever played a defensive snap in the regular season.
At some point, though, you have to wonder if Hobbs does have a role with this team as a slot defender. For whatever reason, the Packers have really tried to make 2024 second-round pick Javon Bullard work, despite him being a liability in the slot in obvious passing situations. There’s a case that the team could split the slot role into a shared opportunity for Hobbs (in passing situations) and Bullard (in running situations) to help the team.
With that being said, both a second-round pick and a $48 million contract player making up one slot defender role is a pretty tough pill to swallow, from a roster construction standpoint.
Valentine gave up just 29 yards against the Steelers per NFL Pro, including a contested touchdown. Over his last three starts, Hobbs had allowed 63 yards per game, despite dropping out early in Week 4 against the Dallas Cowboys with an injury and being played in a rotation in Week 6 against the Cincinnati Bengals.
LaFleur said he was pleased with Valentine’s performance on Sunday.
