The fifth miss from 50 yards, all of which passed the right side, marked the end of a six-week experiment with Brayden Narveson as the Green Bay Packers’ kicker.
Narveson’s missed 44-yard field goal in the second half of Sunday’s win over the Arizona Cardinals at Lambeau Field prompted the Packers – who had vowed patience with the rookie kicker – to make a midseason change. Multiple reports say the Packers will sign veteran Brandon McManus ahead of Sunday’s visit of the 5-1 Houston Texans.
Over the past two months, coach Matt LaFleur and general manager Brian Gutekunst have repeatedly advised patience with the recent kicker. Gutekunst even went so far as to admit that he gave up on specialists too early during his career as Packers general manager. LaFleur consistently defended Narveson’s attitude and practice results.
But when it mattered, the results weren’t good enough – especially for a team with Super Bowl aspirations.
Instead of hoping Narveson would improve and the mistakes on the right side would be fixed, the Packers spun the carousel again.
Narveson, who was released after final cuts, made 12 of 17 field goals in six games. His 17 tackles were second among kickers, but his five missed tackles were the most in the NFL. Among qualifying kickers, Narveson’s 70.6 field goal percentage ranked 32nd, second-to-last and ahead only of Greg Zierlein, who had two misses in the New York Jets’ loss to the Buffalo Bills by the end of Week 6. All five of Narveson’s misses were out of control. 50 yards, including a sub-40 miss.
Narveson was the sixth of seven times the Packers have attempted a good kick in the post-Mason Crosby era. Anders Carlson, Jack Podlesny, Greg Joseph, James Turner and Alex Hale all got their chances. The Packers took an unconventional route to start the 2024 season, claiming that Narveson – an undrafted rookie – was waived by the Titans after neither Carlson nor Joseph reported and earned the starting job during training camp. Hale was retained as an international player on the training squad.
The experiment failed.
Now taking over the kicking duties will be McManus, a 10-year NFL veteran who made 30 field goals and 100% of the extra points for the Jacksonville Jaguars last season. He is only available because of an ongoing lawsuit alleging he sexually assaulted him on a plane with the Jaguars last year, although he has not been charged with a crime and the NFL has announced that McManus has not will be disciplined in accordance with the league’s conduct policy.
McManus has over 300 field goals to his name. When it comes to kicks under 50 yards, McManus has a career field goal percentage of 90.8, ninth-best among kickers with at least 50 field goal attempts since 2010. McManus kicked a lot of long kicks in Denver for nine years. However, he consistently made field goals that are expected of kickers in today’s NFL.
Over the past two years, Narveson and Carlson have missed too many high-volume kicks. In McManus, the Packers should have a reliable veteran who can consistently convert extra points and kicks in the 30-49 range.
However, McManus is 33 years aged and still dealing with significant off-field issues, so it’s fair to wonder whether the Packers will get the best version of him right away.
Two years of bad field goals have tested and likely ruined the Packers’ patience with kickers. Since the start of 2023, Green Bay has missed 11 regular-season field goals, the most in the NFL, and only one team has missed more extra points than Green Bay’s five teams. These numbers don’t even take into account Carlson’s extra missed point and devastating missed field goal in the playoffs last season.
Narveson was given six weeks’ probation. The Packers thought he would be the solution, but patience quickly ran out. Now McManus is expected to give the Packers their first reliable kicking option in the post-Crosby era.
