Acme Packing Company
Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur didn’t shy away from the idea of a kicking competition this week. As it stands right now, the Packers are the lone team in the NFL that carries two kickers on their active roster — Brandon McManus and Lucas Havrisik — which started in Week 6.
This year, Havrisik hit all 10 of his kicks (including PATs) in his two games of action, most notably his 61-yard franchise-breaking field goal against the Arizona Cardinals. Meanwhile, McManus, who was 50 of 51 last season (including PATs), has been dealing with a quad injury. Beyond the red zone this season, McManus has hit just three field goals on eight attempts, and is hovering around the bottom three kickers in the league in terms of expected points added among kickers who still have their jobs in Week 10.
“We’re going to have both the guys kick today, and we’ll kind of see where Brandon is at, in terms of his health and whatnot, and go with who we feel like gives us the best opportunity to compete and win,” said LaFleur on Thursday. The team’s messaging on whether McManus’ lack of efficiency this year has or has not been because of his quad injury has been inconsistent this season.
Despite the misses, though, LaFleur claims that he still has as much confidence in McManus as he did last year. When asked about that today, he responded, “I do. Absolutely, because I see it every day.”
