Green Bay Packers kicker Brandon McManus has been playing very poorly this season, a point of frustration for fans who watched McManus’ injury replacement, Lucas Havrisik, set the franchise record for the longest
field goal made in club history at 61 yards in his last appearance with the team. Since returning from injury, McManus has missed three additional field goals in two games, which head coach Matt LaFleur has explained away as just “kickers miss kicks.”
On Thursday, McManus was not listed as limited on the Packers’ injury report, but LaFleur did say he was opening up the kicking competition, allowing both kickers to kick in the same practice, after voicing support for McManus. Still, Green Bay has gone out of its way to keep both McManus and Havrisik on the 53-man roster for well over a month, making them the only NFL team rostering two kickers on its active roster.
Comparing Brandon McManus and Brayden Narveson
So how bad has McManus been this year, and how long is his leash? To answer this question, let’s compare him to the kicker he replaced: Brayden Narveson.
Before McManus was signed in 2024, the Packers’ kicker was Narveson, who was claimed off waivers after the 53-man roster cutdown deadline. Before being replaced, Narveson was 6 of 7 on field goals in the red zone, 5 of 9 outside of the red zone and a perfect 16 of 16 on extra points. This year, McManus is 8 of 8 in the red zone, 3 of 8 outside of the red zone and 15 of 16 on extra points.
Even if you don’t put the blocked kicks against the Cleveland Browns (a field goal) and Dallas Cowboys (an extra point) on McManus’ shoulders, he’s basically been as bad as Narveson’s 2024 season.
So far, 38 kickers have attempted a field goal in the NFL this year. Only two kickers, Younghoe Koo and Joshua Karty, have a worse field goal percentage than McManus. Koo was released by the Atlanta Falcons after Week 2 and is now a member of the New York Giants’ practice squad. Karty is currently in a kicking competition with practice squadder Harrison Mevis, despite Karty being one of the best kickoff specialists in the NFL.
If you include kickoffs into the mix, you can argue that McManus has been the worst-performing kicker in the league who still has a job going into Week 10 action.
Brandon McManus’ cap hits
So let’s talk about what moving on from McManus would mean. Because McManus is a vested veteran, his salary for the 2025 season was fully guaranteed when he made the team in Week 1, but because he’s a vested veteran, he’s also now subject to waivers following the trade deadline. If the Packers moved on from McManus at this point, he would go on waivers. If he doesn’t get claimed in that scenario, then Green Bay would owe him his $82,353 per game checks for the remainder of this season. They would save the $29,411 per game active roster bonuses that he’s making, though, which he receives every time he makes the 48-man gameday roster.
For the 2026 season, his projected cap hit was expected to be around $5.4 million. If they move on from McManus this year, they’ll save a little north of $2 million in cap space for 2026, not including any offset on his 2025 salary if McManus is picked up on waivers.
With Havrisik being an exclusive rights free agent in 2026, he’ll make the league minimum of around $1 million next season if the Packers choose to tender the kicker. So, at minimum, a swap of McManus for Havrisik would save Green Bay a little more than $1 million in cap space next year, even if they pay out the remainder of McManus’ 2025 salary.
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One more bad performance from McManus could get the Packers to finally pull the trigger. Without the excuse of an injury, as McManus continues to be a full participant in practice, his fate will be up to him. A bad Monday against the Philadelphia Eagles could be enough to spark a change for Green Bay’s special teams unit, despite McManus signing a three-year contract back in March.
