The Packers officially signed McManus to a one-year contract on Wednesday, and the veteran kicker is expected to start Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans at Lambeau Garden.
Beyond the Packers’ lone kicker, Brayden Narveson, in the first six games of this season, they have had six others on the roster since the end of last season. One of them, Alex Hale, more on the track team.
The inexperienced Narveson, immune to Bay, on the corresponding list, will go on Wednesday.
Narveson, a rookie whom the Packers claimed off waivers from the Tennessee Titans in late August, has missed a league-high five field goal attempts this season, including a 44-yarder in Sunday’s win over the Arizona Cardinals.
For starters, the Packers kept Greg Joseph at the end of the preseason over senior kicker Anders Carlson. Additionally, they had James Turner and Jack Podlesny on their 90-man roster in the offseason in other matters.
Asked Monday if the team was considering a kicking replacement this day, Packers mentor Matt LaFleur said, “I wouldn’t say that now, no.” On the other hand, he stated that “they would take it day by day.” That was before the team worked out McManus on Tuesday.
McManus, 33, spent last season with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He made 30 of 37 field goal attempts and all 35 extra point attempts in his best season with the team.
He signed a one-year, $3.6 million guarantee contract with the Washington Commanders during the offseason, but was immune in early June after two women who worked as flight attendants on the charter airline the Jaguars had for fly to London in September 2023 filed a lawsuit. lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault during the trip.
The NFL announced on Sept. 30 that it found insufficient evidence that McManus violated the league’s personal conduct policy. League spokesman Brian McCarthy stated as part of a comment that “as always, if new evidence is presented, it will be taken into account.”
Tony Buzbee, an attorney representing the two women, told ESPN on Sept. 30 that the league had not interviewed his clients as part of its investigation. It was not instantly recognized whether or not the edges had spoken since then.
McManus is an 81.4% career kicker on outfield targets. He spent the first nine seasons of his career with the Denver Broncos.
The Packers have been looking for a solid replacement since leaving their career leading scorer, Mason Crosby, at the start of the 2022 season. In his final season with the Packers, Crosby hit 86.2% of his outfield targets.
Last season, Carlson, a sixth-round pick in 2023, missed 13 total kicks, including yard goals and additional problems in the family season and playoffs, the most of any kicker in the league.
