Acme Packing Company
The numbers say that re-signing McManus should be a no-brainer, but of course it’s not that simple.
The Green Bay Packers have few big names among the group of players who are set to become unrestricted free agents in 2025. Yes, several of these individuals were significant role players over the past few seasons, but only a few were consistent starters or truly major contributors to the team’s recent success.
However, as we continue on with delineating the cases for re-signing each of them, we come to one player for whom the case in favor is clear. The on-field performance — including a handful of clutch moments immediately after his arrival at midseason — has few holes, as you will see shortly. Instead, the case against bringing him back is entirely based around questions about off-the-field conduct, questions that at this point appear to have been answered to the Packers’ satisfaction.
Let’s take a look at the player who helped solve the Packers’ recent kicking woes: Brandon McManus.
Look, the case for bringing him back is not hard to make. After moving on from Mason Crosby following the 2022 season, the Packers struggled to find a consistent place-kicker for a year and a half. They dealt with Anders Carlson’s issues throughout 2023 as he went 27/33 for 81.8% on FGs and had some truly crushing misses, including in the final minutes of the Divisional Playoff game in San Francisco. (Plus, he missed five PATs.) Then after neither Carlson nor Greg Joseph earned the job in training camp last summer, they picked up rookie Brayden Narveson, who went 12/17 (70.6%) in six games, with all of his misses from the 40-49 range.
The Packers signed McManus ahead of their week 7 game against the Houston Texans and he proceeded to kick back-to-back game-winning field goals in his first two games, including one from 45 yards out. He also nailed a would-be game-winning 55-yarder in week 18 against the Chicago Bears, but the Packers left too much time on the clock and the Bears managed a true walk-off game winner 54 seconds later.
McManus missed just one kick in 11 regular season games — a 46-yarder in the rain at Lambeau in week 9 — and one more in the Wild Card game against the Eagles. In 16 years with the Packers, Crosby exceeded McManus’ total hit rate of 91.3% just twice, doing so in 2019 (22/24 for 91.7%) and 2020 (20/20 for a perfect hit rate). McManus came through both consistently and in the clutch in a way that the Packers — and McManus...
