Packers 2026 Offseason

[igor67]

Why not wait until camp at this point?

[patrickgpe]

7 minutes ago, igor67 said:

Why not wait until camp at this point?

I would think it was a favor for him so he can find somewhere to latch on. 

[JosephC]

4 minutes ago, patrickgpe said:

I would think it was a favor for him so he can find somewhere to latch on. 

The bigger favor was giving him 1 million dollars for nothing.

[patrickgpe]

11 minutes ago, JosephC said:

The bigger favor was giving him 1 million dollars for nothing.

What i do not understand is that if the packers waiting until after June 1st the cap savings would have been 2.6 Million, by cutting him today the Packers only saved about 950K. 

[SeaBass]

20 minutes ago, JosephC said:

The bigger favor was giving him 1 million dollars for nothing.

On both occasions (keeping him, then cutting him later) they made what they felt was the best choice in that moment.

[GAME05]

Some training competition would have made the most sense. Maybe he was mad about the pick and said something. But yeah, they've really been bungling the kicker situation for a good while now.

[patrickgpe]

3 hours ago, patrickgpe said:

What i do not understand is that if the packers waiting until after June 1st the cap savings would have been 2.6 Million, by cutting him today the Packers only saved about 950K. 

McManus was released with a post June 1st designation, Packers will save 3.6 million of cap space actually

[JosephC]

6 hours ago, patrickgpe said:

McManus was released with a post June 1st designation, Packers will save 3.6 million of cap space actually

The savings might only be 2.6 million for this year.

Over the cap had him with a $5,278,431 cap number for 2026.

A pre-June 1 release would have been a $4,333,334 cap charge in 2026, and a $0 cap charge in 2027.  A roughly 945k cap savings in 2026.

Over the cap has the post-June 1 release as carrying a $2,666,666 cap charge in 2026 (a roughly 2.611 million dollar cap savings) and a $1,666,668 cap charge in 2027.  It all depend on, by rule, if that 1 million roster bonus goes on this year's cap or next year's cap, and I don't know exactly how that works.

The only other dead money on the 2027 cap is Nate Hobbs 8 million.

[adambr2]

So we for all metaphorical purposes just lit 1 million dollars on fire for no reason at all. That’s healthy cap management.

[BrewerFan]

9 hours ago, adambr2 said:

So we for all metaphorical purposes just lit 1 million dollars on fire for no reason at all. That’s healthy cap management.

Were you not calling for him to be replaced?

[adambr2]

2 hours ago, BrewerFan said:

Were you not calling for him to be replaced?

I think you know that’s the not the point of what I said.

It could have been done in March and not spent a million dollars for literally nothing.

[BrewerFan]

51 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

I think you know that’s the not the point of what I said.

It could have been done in March and not spent a million dollars for literally nothing.

Well... yeah, but it's not like they knew going into the draft with limited picks they would get their guy... so when they did, it's a sunk cost.

I'd rather they eat the 1M... which really isn't much to them, than be stubborn and go with McManus because they're already invested. 

[LouisEly]

9 hours ago, adambr2 said:

 

It could have been done in March and not spent a million dollars for literally nothing.

If someone else drafted Smack right in front of them, then what?

[adambr2]

19 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

If someone else drafted Smack right in front of them, then what?

Havrisik? Matsuzawa?

Surely the organization has contingency plans in place to pivot to if Trey Smack gets sniped from them and doesn’t need a 1 million dollar insurance policy on a 6th round rookie kicker.

 

[adambr2]

8 hours ago, BrewerFan said:

Well... yeah, but it's not like they knew going into the draft with limited picks they would get their guy... so when they did, it's a sunk cost.

I'd rather they eat the 1M... which really isn't much to them, than be stubborn and go with McManus because they're already invested. 

It’s obviously not the end of the world and I’d rather them eat the 1M too, it just seems a bit financially irresponsible to me if they weren’t really committed to McManus in the first place.

[CheezWizHed]

20 hours ago, adambr2 said:

Havrisik? Matsuzawa?

Surely the organization has contingency plans in place to pivot to if Trey Smack gets sniped from them and doesn’t need a 1 million dollar insurance policy on a 6th round rookie kicker.

 

It would seem like the evidence says that the $1M was the insurance policy.  In retrospect, it stinks, but so does not having a kicker.  

[SeaBass]

Boy I just love hindsight analysis. Warm and fuzzy feelings.

I can just imagine the Packers cutting McManus to save a million dollars that absolutely nobody cares about except as an opportunity to criticize. Then draft night comes and the Packers trade into the 5th round or just simply use a 5th round pick on the kicker they now absolutely MUST take. I mean, by the holy power of hindsight we know the Packers really wanted Smack.

Yeah, the internet wouldn't have anything to say about that at all I'm sure.

The reality is the million dollars means nothing at all, except to McManus. The Packers weren't forced to take a kicker and could operate however they wished without the extra stress of being just one kicker deep on the roster.

It's almost like the decision makers here act with intention instead of a hope and a prayer.

[JosephC]

I don't think it's as much about the 1 million dollars as it was about dumping McManus when they did.  Once he's paid the 1 million dollars, why not keep him through training camp and make Smack earn his spot?  Gutekunst has drafted 1 kicker previously.  That player was a bust.  Of the last five kickers the Packers have drafted, they've had 2 hits and 3 misses, a 40% success rate.

Smack was the 216th player drafted.  In the last 5 years, there have been 10 kickers that were drafted higher than #216.  Of those 10 kickers, only 5 are still with the team that drafted them.  The last draft that didn't have at least 1 kicker drafted higher than #216 was in 2015 (no kickers drafted at all that season).

Smack is no lock to be a good NFL kicker.  Why be so confident in a completely unproven player?  Is 2024 so long ago that Gutekunst has completely forgotten what happened?  What sense does it make to pay McManus an extra 1 million dollars, and then dump him months away from training camp before allowing him to compete for the job?

 

[SeaBass]

Because they saw him as expendable. McManus is a known quantity, there's no mystery there. Keeping him around to compete when they know exactly what he brings doesn't accomplish much.

I get that people are saying if he's expendable now then he was expendable before. Sure. I guess in their eyes he was more expendable now than he was before. Does it really have to be deeper than that?

I really think folks need to get past the million dollar bonus and looking for deeper meaning. It doesn't mean anything. They fulfilled a contractual obligation and did so willingly. If the salary cap is $300 million it represents 0.33% of their cap allowance.

That's like giving someone 1 dollar out of the 300 dollars you have in your wallet. It's pocket change.

[GAME05]

Well, and certainly players around the League pay attention to that sorta stuff, too. It's not like players are super eager to play in the cold of Green Bay, so especially when it comes to upcoming camp-cut FAs, here's an organization which'll pay you your million-dollar bonus even if it was pretty sure you wouldn't make the team.