After releasing Brandon McManus, Packers hope sixth-round rookie with Mason Crosby ties solves kicking problem

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The Green Bay Packers made it clear Friday that rookie sixth-round pick Trey Smack is their present and future at kicker.

They cleared the path for Smack to seize that role immediately by releasing 34-year-old veteran kicker Brandon McManus, per ESPN. Despite signing McManus to a three-year, $15.3 million contract in the 2025 offseason, Green Bay chose to part ways now to save $945,097 in cap space instead of waiting until after June 1, when it could have saved $2.611 million.

McManus stabilized the Packers' kicking position in 2024 by drilling 20 of 21 field goals, including all three of his attempts from 50-plus yards. His production dipped in 2025 as he made just 24 of 30 field goal attempts. The biggest stain on McManus' tenure came in the Packers' 31-27 wild card collapse against the Chicago Bears. In the four-point loss, he left seven points on the table by missing both field-goal attempts and one of four extra points.

Green Bay opted not to have the embattled McManus compete with Smack, whom the Packers acquired by trading two seventh-round picks to the Seattle Seahawks in the 2026 NFL Draft to move up and select him No. 216 overall in the sixth round. That conviction stems from Smack's profile as well as the Packers' years-long instability at a position Mason Crosby, the franchise's all-time leading scorer (1,918), had locked down for 16 seasons from 2007-22.

Smack has a few things going for him that McManus lacked at this stage of his career: youth, upside after a stellar career at Florida and a connection to Crosby himself. Smack drilled 10 field goals from 50-plus yards in three seasons at Florida, including a 5-for-6 mark from that range in 2025.

Then there's the Crosby connection. Crosby trained with Pro Bowl and Super Bowl champion kicker Matt Stover, who played 19 seasons from 1991-2009 and helped train Crosby during his adolescent years, according to . Stover did the same with Smack. Stover's son, Joe, was a lacrosse and football teammate of Smack's at Severna Park High School in Maryland, and after seeing Smack kick, he connected him with his former NFL kicker father.