Packers Turn to Rookie Trey Smack as Kicking Carousel Spins Again

The Green Bay Packers released veteran kicker Brandon McManus on Thursday, clearing the path for sixth-round rookie Trey Smack to assume duties at a position that has been a source of instability since the 2022 season. The move, confirmed by the team on 8 May 2026, ends a brief tenure for McManus and marks another chapter in Green Bay's ongoing search for consistency in the kicking game.

Smack arrives at this moment through a combination of draft investment and lineage. He was selected in the sixth round of the 2025 NFL Draft — a round typically reserved for developmental picks — and his training background carries an unusual direct connection to the most decorated kicker in franchise history. According to reporting from CBS Sports, Smack has trained with former NFL kicker Matt Stover, who also mentored Mason Crosby during the early years of Crosby's 16-year Green Bay career that ended in 2018.

The decision to move on from McManus comes after the veteran appeared in ten games for the Packers in 2025, a tenure that generated mixed results. The specifics of that performance — field goal percentage, touchback rate on kickoffs, and clutch situational kicking — remain contested in the reporting, but the team's willingness to invest a draft pick in Smack signals a preference for a longer-term solution over a journeyman bridge.

The Crosby Shadow

Any discussion of Packers kicking must contend with the figure of Mason Crosby. He holds the franchise record for points scored, served as the primary kicker for a Super Bowl-winning team, and retired as one of the most reliable mid-range kickers of his generation. The void he left was never cleanly filled. The Packers cycled through kickers in 2019 and 2020 before settling briefly on a series of replacements whose tenures rarely extended beyond a single season.

Smack's connection to the Crosby lineage through Stover is not merely biographical. Stover, who kicked for three NFL teams across a 13-year career and retired in 2012, has built a reputation as a developer of kickers who can perform under pressure in cold-weather environments — a non-trivial consideration for a franchise that plays half its games in December and January at Lambeau Field.

The training relationship suggests the Packers are not simply plugging in a rookie with good leg strength. They are, according to the available sourcing, investing in a specific technical foundation built by someone who understands what Green Bay demands from its kickers.

The McManus Question

McManus signed with the Packers in 2025 after a career that included stints with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Denver Broncos. He brought 11 years of NFL experience and a reputation for durability — he missed only three games across his previous four seasons. That durability did not, evidently, translate to the consistency the Packers were seeking.

The team's decision to release him after a ten-game sample size is notable. NFL teams typically tolerate a degree of early-season inconsistency from new kickers, particularly those adjusting to a new climate, snap-holder relationship, and coaching staff. That Green Bay moved so quickly suggests either that McManus's performance fell below a pre-agreed threshold, or that the coaching staff had sufficient confidence in Smack's readiness to remove the veteran entirely from the equation.

Neither interpretation is confirmed in the available sourcing. What is confirmed is that McManus is no longer on the roster, and that Smack — a rookie drafted 212th overall — is now the man.

What Remains Uncertain

The available reporting leaves significant gaps. There is no public data on Smack's performance during offseason workouts, minicamp, or training camp practices. The specific metrics that led to McManus's release — field goal distance breakdown, percentage of kickoffs reaching the end zone, performance in high-leverage situations — are not available in the thread context. The new special teams coordinator's evaluation process is described only in general terms.

What is clear is that the Packers are committing to a youth movement at a position that has tested veteran resolve for three seasons running. Whether that commitment is born of genuine confidence in Smack's ceiling or simply a willingness to absorb rookie growing pains rather than pay veteran market rates is a question the 2026 season will answer.

Stakes Ahead

For the Packers, the kicking position carries outsized strategic weight. Green Bay's offensive identity under its current coaching staff relies on sustained drives and efficient scoring in the red zone — a context that rewards kickers who can convert from 40 to 50 yards with regularity. A below-average kicking game forces coaches into fourth-down calculus that limits play-calling options and compresses the margin for error on an offense still developing its identity around younger skill players.

TheNFC North remains competitive. The Detroit Lions have invested in roster depth across all three phases. The Chicago Bears are in the early stages of a competitive rebuild. The Minnesota Vikings have demonstrated willingness to spend aggressively at premium positions. In that environment, even a modest kicking advantage — three or four extra points across a season — can be the difference between hosting a playoff game and watching from home.

Smack's introduction is not a headline in isolation. It is a diagnostic marker. If he stabilises the position, the Packers absorb a rookie learning curve and emerge with a cost-controlled kicker for the foreseeable future. If the carousel continues, the questions will shift from personnel to the structural conditions that have made this franchise's kicking situation so persistently turbulent.

The ball is in the rookie's hands. The franchise will find out soon enough whether the lineage translates.

This desk noted that the wire framed the Smack story as a rookie feature; the structural angle — a franchise repeatedly cycling through the game's most psychologically demanding position — warranted deeper examination of what the pattern suggests about the Packers' development model at specialist roles.

Wire provenance

This editorial synthesis draws on the following public wire/social posts:

• https://t.me/s/cbssportshub/2026-05-08