One field goal does not a kicker make. Two feels a lot better, but it’s still not enough for a trend.
All that to say, Trey Smack got off to a pretty good start during the Packers’ first preseason game of 2026.
Though it didn’t count, Smack opened his Packers career with a 58-yard boot to put them up 3-0. A penalty took the points off the board, but we all saw it. It went up and through, easy as you please.
Then, after Kyle McCord navigated a tidy two-minute drill at the end of the first half, Smack
did it again, putting another 58-yard attempt through the uprights. This one was penalty free, and pulled the Packers to within a point heading into the halftime break.
A 38-yard field goal capped Smack’s day, but it’s been enough to get people talking. And they should be. To this point, the story on Smack has been his shaky start to camp, and admittedly, it wasn’t great. The sixth round pick converted just eight of his first 13 attempts in camp, a bad enough start to the season for a kicker of any status to draw heat, much less a rookie who the Packers burned two picks moving up to select.
But Smack’s big leg has always been his signature. He set the record at Florida with 10 career field goals of 50 yards or more, and he stood out among kicking prospects for his ability to convert from distance. Even if Brian Gutekunst didn’t go into the draft planning to target a kicker, things fell his way and the Packers put together a package to get him.
And now the move is paying early dividends. In a league where attempts from 50+ yards are skyrocketing, having a kicker who can’t put through long kicks is a liability. Though Brandon McManus stabilized the Packers’ kicking game in 2024, it was clear by the end of the 2025 season that he couldn’t get the job done from deep. It’s true that an injury hampered much of his 2025 season, but at age 34, McManus didn’t have the leg he once did, and it cost the Packers. Yes, a 55-yard attempt in Chicago in January is a high-difficulty kick, but a more powerful kicker would have had a better shot at it, and McManus didn’t get the job done when called upon. That’s the brutal evaluation process for kickers: the ball either goes through those tall yellow things or it doesn’t. Put it through, you’re a good kicker. Miss, and you take the blame, regardless of the degree of difficulty.
Now, though, it looks like the Packers have a kicker comfortable with distance. Smack’s dual 58-yard boots would have tied for the fourth-longest attempts of the Matt LaFleur era, and his first attempt would have been the longest that didn’t come at the end of a half or game. Brandon McManus attempted a 64-yard field goal to tie the game at the end of the Packers’ 2025 loss to the Eagles, Anders Carlson tried from 63 yards to end the first half during a 2023 game against the Lions, and Lukas Havrisik tried (and made) a 61-yard field goal against the Cardinals in 2025.
Even if it’s just one kick, it seems noteworthy that the Packers even wanted to try. Would they have done the same in a regular season game that counted? Perhaps not, but now they know that Smack can convert from a pretty significant distance when called upon. And for good measure, Smack went ahead and did it twice. That’s a much better place to be than the uncertainty he faced earlier in camp.
