After missing the last two weeks with a quad injury, Brandon McManus returned to action in the Green Bay Packers' 35-25 win over the Steelers on Sunday. The veteran kicker took his starting role back from Lucas Havrisik, who performed admirably in his place. His return, however, didn't go according to plan, and the Packers' win shouldn't distract us from the decision the team has to make.
McManus missed two field goals in the first half: a 57-yard attempt that was short and a 44-yard attempt that went wide left, which could have cut the lead to one possession right before halftime. These misses put the Packers behind the eight-ball, forcing them to pull off another fourth-quarter comeback to secure the win.
How much of his quad was still affecting McManus is unclear, but this now makes four missed field goals for McManus in five games. Although one of those was blocked, 9/13 is an embarrassingly low accuracy.
Compare that with Havrisik, who went 4/4 in field goals and 6/6 in extra point attempts in his two appearances, and the choice becomes obvious for the Packers.
Packers Have a Tough Brandon McManus Decision to Make
This may seem harsh after McManus had an excellent kicking season last year after he joined Green Bay mid-season. He missed only one field goal in 11 games and made all of his extra points. However, perhaps more than any other position in football, kicker is a "what have you done for me lately?" proposition. It's such a mental and psychological endeavor that how good McManus kicked last season is irrelevant to how he is doing now. That 2024 success was also something of an outlier over his last few NFL seasons.
Year | Field Goals Made | Field Goal Attempts | Field Goal % |
|---|---|---|---|
2022 | 28 | 37 | 77.8% |
2023 | 30 | 37 | 81.1% |
2024 | 20 | 21 | 95.2% |
2025 | 9 | 13 | 69.2% |
The Packers left the door open for the possibility of choosing Havrisik over McManus by keeping the former on the 53-man roster despite the latter's return. Normally, teams don't like to keep two kickers on their active rosters as they see it as a waste of a roster spot. Yet, Green Bay only chose to make Havrisik inactive instead of releasing him.
This could create a trade possibility ahead of the November 4 deadline. A kicker-needy team could give up a small draft asset to acquire McManus. Despite his struggles, the 34-year-old would still be an upgrade over plenty of kickers across the league. Otherwise, cutting him remains an option the Packers will seriously consider.
It was reported throughout the week that McManus was pushing to play, potentially sensing that he may lose his job if Havrisik continued his perfect streak. Perhaps he returned to action sooner than he should have, especially considering the field conditions in Pittsburgh. While he may have made a miscalculation due to fear of losing his job due to his injury, he may have inadvertently done so by rushing back.