The Green Bay Packers made a decisive change this week, moving away from rookie kicker Brayden Narveson and signing veteran Brandon McManus.
Packers special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia didn’t mince words in explaining why this switch was necessary.
“We’ve had some difficulties with that,” Bisaccia said, referring to the team’s struggles with kicks under 50 yards. The Packers experimented with Narveson, hoping he could deliver consistency. However, it became clear that patience was running thin, as Narveson’s performance faltered early in the season.
Narveson failed to attempt a kick over 50 yards, and his success rate on field goals stood at a disappointing 70.6%. Worse still, when excluding short-range attempts under 30 yards, that figure plummeted to 61.5%. Across six games, Narveson missed five field goals—all within 50 yards—and was spared a sixth by a holding penalty in Week 3.
In contrast, McManus brings reliability. Over his 161-game career, he has only missed 12 field goals between 40 and 49 yards, averaging just 0.07 misses per game. For comparison, Narveson’s miss rate stood at 0.67 per game during his brief stint with the Packers. Although McManus has a modest 54.9% success rate from beyond 50 yards, his precision in shorter ranges is a much-needed upgrade for Green Bay.
With challenging opponents like the Detroit Lions, Chicago Bears, and San Francisco 49ers ahead, Bisaccia emphasized the importance of making critical field goals.
“We have to be making those kicks,” he reiterated.
The Packers hope that McManus, with his experience and accuracy, will stabilize their kicking game moving forward.
In the high-pressure environment of the NFL, confidence is everything, especially for kickers. The Packers are banking on McManus to deliver the reliability they’ve been missing, as they cannot afford further slip-ups with crucial games on the horizon.
