GREEN BAY − Among 33 NFL kickers with at least 10 field-goal attempts this season, Brandon McManus’ 64.7% success rate is the worst.
It’s an abrupt shift from last season, when McManus instantly stopped the Green Bay Packers’ kicking carrousel after signing midway through the year, splitting the uprights on game-winning field goals as time expired in his first two weeks. McManus finished last season 20 of 21 on field goals, joining Tennessee’s Nick Folk as the league’s only two kickers with only one miss in at least 20 attempts.
McManus has missed a kick in four of his seven games this season, including three straight since returning from a quad injury on his kicking leg, and that doesn’t include a pair of games in which a kick was blocked. But Packers coach Matt LaFleur said he is standing by the veteran despite Lucas Havrisik remaining on the team’s 53-man roster.
“We’re confident in Brandon,” LaFleur said. “I think some of those situations were, like the other night, that’s a tough situation to be in. I would say the day to day we experience and watch and evaluate across the street (at the practice field), we’re going to put more stock into the practice. And then, ultimately, you have to go out there and perform on game day.”
The situation LaFleur referred to was McManus’ failed 64-yard attempt at the end of the Nov. 10 game against the Philadelphia Eagles, a kick that didn’t come close to the uprights, but also one that had very little chance inside a cold and windy Lambeau Field.
McManus also missed a 58-yard attempt in Pittsburgh, perhaps the NFL’s most-difficult stadium in which to kick. But he missed a 44-yard attempt in the same game and is just 1 of 5 this season between 40 and 49 yards, with only one of those attempts blocked.
“The conversations I’ve had with him have been positive,” LaFleur said, “and that, ‘Hey, I’m ready to go.’ Then obviously the performance aspect in how they perform at practice, he’s done well at practice. That’s how I have to make a decision.”
LaFleur defended the team’s decision to keep Havrisik on the roster despite their intent on sticking with McManus, a two-kicker situation most teams avoid.
“I think Lucas is a really good, up-and-coming kicker as well,” LaFleur said. “Fortunately for us, we have the flexibility in our roster to carry two.”
This article originally appeared on Packers News: Packers stick with struggling kicker Brandon McManus, keep Lucas Havrisik
