Packers are forced to deal with a new old problem all over again, and finding a definitive solution remains frustratingly difficult
Brandon McManus had a tough season and was one of the main reasons why the Packers lost to the Bears.
What a marvelous franchise the Green Bay Packers would be if special teams weren’t a part of professional football. Against the Chicago Bears in the playoffs, there were several mistakes, but none of them was bigger than what happened with kicker Brandon McManus.
The team scored 27 points on the road, but it should have been 34 — McManus missed a 55-yarder after he had made it (but the Bears called a timeout), a 44-yard field goal, and a costly extra point in the fourth quarter.
Even if McManus had converted only the extra point, the Packers would be in position to take the game to overtime. It’s fair to say that the biggest difference in the game was that Cairo Santos was a better player.
“The biggest disappointment of my career,” McManus said after the game. “It was an embarrassment of a performance. It’s disappointing. My role on the team is to make kicks and these guys pour in thousands of plays over the course of the season and I leave seven points on the board. The most disappointing point of my career ever.”
It’s insane to think about the track record. McManus won a Super Bowl for the Denver Broncos, and that was the only postseason in which he had field goal and/or extra point attempts. He was 10/10 in field goals and 3/3 in extra points. In two postseasons for the Packers, he converted only one of four FGs, and four of five XPs.
Playoff misses were not an outlier
Even though Brandon McManus is a veteran player, he missed several impactful kicks for the Packers during the 2025 season. After converting 95.2% of his field goals (20/21) in 2024 and getting a three-year contract extension, he missed six field goals and one extra point in the regular season, and his FG% went down to 80.
Beyond the numbers, the cost of those particular misses were obvious. McManus had a blocked kick that cost the Packers a win over the Cleveland Browns, a blocked extra point returned for two in the tie with the Dallas Cowboys, a missed field goal in a 10-7 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, and another missed field goal in a 16-13 loss to the Carolina Panthers.
Up to the catastrophic Broncos game, with Micah Parsons getting injured, those were all the non-wins in the Packers’ season. The team could have much more margin for error after Parsons went down by simply converting field goals when they mattered.
Contract situation and future
The Packers gave McManus a three-year, $15.3 million contract. The only part fully guaranteed at signing was the $5 million signing bonus. The kicker is slated to make $3.7 million in 2026, but he has a $1 million roster bonus due in March, forcing the Packers to make an early decision. If Green Bay cuts him, there would be $3.33 million in dead money, with $1.945 million in cap savings next year, plus $6.266 million in savings for 2027.
The primary option to replace him would be Lucas Havrisik, who played three games for the Packers in 2025, converting all of his four field goal attempts (including a 61-yarder) and seven of nine extra points. Havrisik finished the season on the Packers’ practice squad and signed a future deal for 2026.
But the Packers could look for external alternatives as well — the best realistic option is probably San Francisco 49ers’ Eddy Pineiro, who converted 28 of 29 field goals this season.
Mason Crosby had tough final two seasons for the Packers, and the front office hasn’t been able to definitely solve the issue since — Anders Carlson, Brayden Narveson, and several others. When it looked solved with McManus, well, things went sideways again. Now, Brian Gutekunst has some tough choices to make.
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