Paul Bretl | 10/16/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — In need of a change at kicker, the Packers announced on Wednesday that they had released rookie Brayden Narveson and signed veteran Brandon McManus, who the team had in for a workout on Tuesday.
McManus is a proven, veteran kicker in this league who has gone through the fire in games, as GM Brian Gutekunst put it on Wednesday when speaking with reporters. It’s not often a player of his caliber is available at this time of the NFL season, however, there is a big reason for that.
Two women sued McManus, alleging that he sexually assaulted them last year when they were working as flight attendants on the Jacksonville Jaguars flight over to London for an NFL game.
Recently, the NFL, who conducted its own investigation, determined that there was not sufficient evidence to suspend McManus–allowing him to sign with a team. The investigation, according to The Athletic, included interviews with 30 individuals and that any new evidence would be taken into consideration if presented.
In early September, a judge dismissed the lawsuit brought against McManus, stating that the ruling it did not rise to the “exceptional” criteria required for anonymity, according to the AP. A few days later, an amended complaint was filed in Duval County, Flordia that included the flight attendants names.
On Wednesday, McManus’ attorney, Brett Gallaway, stated that “the case has been resolved. I look forward to seeing Brandon play for the Packers on Sunday,” in a statement via The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman.
“It’s been a difficult time these last couple of months,” said McManus at his new locker on Wednesday after practice. “I’m happy that it’s in the past now. I was hoping and working hard for another opportunity. I’m extremely grateful for the Green Bay Packers for giving me that next chance to come back out here and play the game I love. I’m fortunate to play it for 11 years, this being my 12th year. I’m extremely happy to be here and excited to be around the locker room again.”
Throughout the process leading up to the addition of McManus, the Packers would do their own due diligence but leaned heavily on the league’s findings from its investigation.
“I think the league did a really thorough investigation, and we leaned on that as we went through it,” said Gutekunst before Wednesday’s practice.
Also a part of this process were conversations between Gutekunst, McManus, and McManus’ agent Drew Rosenhaus.
“I had a really good conversation with Brandon last night,” added Gutekunst. “Obviously and his agent Drew Rosenhaus as we kind of, last week when these things got cleared up within the league and he got past some other things, those conversations kind of just picked up. We wanted to make sure that we did our due diligence. Again, we feel really good about that where we sit right now. We’re excited to get him out there.”
McManus has been in the NFL since 2014 and played with the Denver Broncos through the 2022 season, which included winning a Super Bowl in 2015. For his career, he has made 81.9 percent of his field goal attempts, including 86.2 percent from 40-49 yards and 56.0 percent of his attempts from 50-plus yards.
In his most recent 2023 season with Jacksonville, McManus made 30-of-37 attempts. He was 11-of-13 from 40-49 yards and 5-of-10 from over 50 yards. His overall hit rate last year of 81.1 percent, which ranked 25th in the NFL, and was actually worse than Anders Carlson’s 81.8 percent success rate–although McManus was perfect on extra points, and Carlson was not.
None of those numbers are going to leap off the page and there is certainly no guarantee that McManus is going to provide the Packers kicking game with the boost that it desperately needs.
However, where the opportunity for improvement lies is in McManus’ big game experience. During Denver’s 2015 playoff run, McManus was 10-for-10 on field goals in the playoffs. He’s also been quite good on those field goal attempts that you expect the kicker to make, hitting 91.1 percent of his career kicks under 50 yards. It is actually those attempts from 50 or more yards that are dragging his average down.
“Obviously a very experienced kicker,” Gutekunst added. “He’s been in very high-pressure situations and kicked a long time in weather, an outdoor stadium. So he just has a lot of experience, very talented, very gifted, very strong leg. He’s been in the fire and he’s had the ups and downs that all kickers go through and been able to come out the other side.”
Of course, making those must-have-it kicks under 50 yards sounds simple and should be a prerequisite for being a kicker in the NFL. But that was the issue for the Packers. All five of Narveson’s misses were from under 50 yards, while five of Carlson’s seven misses in 2023 were from under 50 yards, along with missing six extra points as well.
For McManus, during his time away from the game, he’s done his best to stay sharp, which included kicking at a light post to work on his accuracy, along with going to football fields to kick through the uprights.
McManus did kick during Wednesday’s practice, to which Matt LaFleur said he “looked great.” Working with Rich Bisaccia, Matt Orzech, and Daniel Whelan, McManus believes he can get acclimated to the new operation fairly quickly.
“These guys are consummate pros,” said McManus of Orzech and Whelan, “and we’ve got one of the best coordinators in the league who’s very detail oriented and he’s done a great job. Just how they operate and everything, the practice, it was a seamless flow today with everything. Extremely excited to be working with them as a unit.”
Since January, McManus will be the seventh kicker that the Packers have had on their roster in some capacity. Although the Packers have tried to turn over just about every stone available to them in search of stability, they’ve been unable to find that element, and now in Week 7 of the regular season, appear to be on their last leg when it comes to getting the help the very much need.
In a league where the margin for winning and losing is razor-thin, especially come playoff time, uncertainty at the kicker position could impact playoff seeding or–as we saw last January–be the difference between advancing in the playoffs or going home early. Missed field goals already potentially cost the Packers a game against Minnesota, they can’t afford to have that happen again.
“I think where our football team is at right now, we know how important these games are,” said Gutekunst. “I thought it was important that if we had an opportunity to get a veteran kicker who’d been through some of these fires and some of this pressure that our team is going to go through over the next few weeks, I thought it was important that we acquire one. And really, Brandon was the only one that was out there.”