The Green Bay Packers want Trey Smack to be their kicker this season. It's no secret, even if they'd never admit it.
Give them a choice, and they would pick the rookie they traded two picks to get over a veteran who played a few games last season and spent the end of the year on the practice squad. It might not be that simple, though.
Teams can't afford to take a wait-and-see, patient approach at kicker. The Packers made a ruthless decision to release Brandon McManus after a difficult season. Now, Smack has to earn the job. Lucas Havrisik could put them in a difficult position this summer.
Lucas Havrisik can force the Packers to take the kicking competition seriously at training camp
The Packers traded away both of their seventh-round picks to move up in the sixth for Smack. That tells us everything about how highly they rated him.
Franchise legend Mason Crosby approved of the decision, calling Smack the "best kicker in this draft."
That's correct, but it guarantees nothing.
Roberto Aguayo, a second-round pick in 2016, was highly rated. He missed nine field goals as a rookie and didn't play another game in the NFL. How about 2023 third-round pick Jake Moody? He's still in the league but has converted just 78 percent of his career field goals and is already on his third team.
History tells us that drafting a kicker doesn't make them any more likely to succeed. That's why Havrisik has a huge opportunity.
Smack has made a rough start to life in Green Bay, struggling for consistency during OTAs and minicamp. He missed four kicks in one practice while facing windy conditions. He has a booming leg and can hit field goals from any distance, but his inconsistency from the shorter, must-have ranges in the NFL is a concern.
Havrisik can make it a real competition. He has some NFL experience and stepped up admirably in place of an injured McManus last season. Havrisik converted all four of his field goals, including a franchise-record 61-yarder, while making seven of his nine extra-point tries. His two misses came in his final game, ending things on a disappointing note.
The veteran outperformed Smack in the offseason program. What if that continues into training camp?
The Packers can't roll with Smack just because he's a draft pick. Not in a season with Super Bowl aspirations. That's not a risk they can take. They learned that the hard way by sticking with Anders Carlson in his rookie season, who ultimately missed a crucial fourth-quarter field goal in the Packers' playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
If Havrisik is the better kicker this summer, it should be his job. It's not what the Packers want. They burned two draft picks to trade up for Smack, and that process will look awful if he doesn't even make the 53-man roster.
But that's not Havrisik's problem. He has an opportunity, and it could just force the Packers into an uncomfortable decision.
Add us as a preferred source on Google