Packers Pin Kicking Hopes on Rookie Trey Smack After Releasing Brandon McManus

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

Trey Smack has trained with former NFL kicker Matt Stover, who also mentored Crosby

By Garrett Podell

May 8, 2026 at 3:09 pm ET • 2 min read

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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 NFL seasons from 1991-2009 and helped train Crosby during his adolescent years, according to  Sports Illustrated . 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.

Stover told SI he helped Smack solidify his kicking fundamentals, and the now-Packers rookie took that guidance and ran with it.

"What I do with them is I teach them the fundamentals, the absolutes, the things you have to do with kicking, and when you miss left and when you miss right, it's a deviation from those particular things," Stover  told SI . "So, you know what to do and you know why you missed left or right, just like golf, but it's a lot less technical than golf because you don't have a club and you're just dealing with your body.

"What Trey did is he got with me and he listened to me. He really did, and he worked. He listened not only from a technique perspective but how to manage yourself with the number of kicks, how to get ready for competition -- all the things that are necessary so you don't get hurt, so that you manage the weight room properly, so you manage the coaches properly."

With kicking being as mental a position as any in sports, the Packers cleared the way for Smack to confidently step in as the team's kicker of the future during his rookie offseason in 2026. Green Bay is now banking on Smack's mastery of Stover's fundamentals to provide another 15 or so years of stability at one of the NFL's most volatile positions.

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_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/packers-kicker-trey-smack-next-mason-crosby/)._