The Packers are releasing Brandon McManus on Friday, according to Adam Schefter, a move that comes just after Green Bay used the 2026 NFL Draft to select kicker Trey Smack in the sixth round.
Releasing McManus opens $945,097 in cap space while creating $4,333,334 in dead money, per OverTheCap. The 34-year-old kicked in 14 games for Green Bay in 2025, making 24 of 30 field goal attempts and 32 of 33 extra points.
The decision ends a brief but productive stop in Green Bay for a veteran who has been on the move for more than a decade. McManus originally signed with the Colts in 2013, lasted just a few months there before catching on with the Giants at the end of the 2014 season, and was then traded to the Broncos in 2015 for a conditional seventh-round pick.
He returned to Denver in 2017 on a one-year restricted tender worth $2.746 million, later agreeing to a three-year, $11.254 million extension and then a four-year, $17.2 million deal in 2020. The Broncos released him with two years left on that contract and base salaries due of $3.65 million and $3.85 million, before McManus signed one-year deals with the Jaguars in 2023 and the Commanders. Washington cut him before he ever played a game because of a sexual harassment lawsuit.
McManus signed with the Packers in October 2024 and was re-signed in March of last year to a three-year deal, but Green Bay has now moved to younger legs after drafting Smack. The release gives the Packers a small amount of cap relief and leaves McManus looking for his next team after another season in which he remained reliable enough to be one of the league’s more efficient kickers.
