If you watched the NFL Network coverage as the Green Bay Packers drafted Trey Smack, you will know he can, well, smack the football. Rich Eisen said as much over and over.
Converting from long range is more important than ever in today's NFL, of course, but there's more to the art of kicking in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Smack has already learned that the hard way, and while it's far too early to hit the panic button, there's definitely some early cause for concern.
The Packers begin their three-day minicamp on Tuesday, where they'll hope to see far more from their rookie kicker after a difficult practice last week. Per ESPN's Rob Demovsky, Smack struggled to deal with the "strong crosswind," missing four of his nine kicks.
Pressure is already building on the Packers' rookie kicker
By releasing veteran Brandon McManus after the draft, the Packers effectively handed Smack the job before he'd even made a kick. The idea was to ease pressure on their rookie by not pitting him against McManus in a 50-50 camp battle. We argued the opposite. If anything, putting Smack in pole position cranked it up even more.
That's not to say pressure got the better of Smack during OTAs. The "strong crosswind," as Demovsky described it, clearly had an impact on his consistency.
But that's precisely the problem. Smack better get used to those unfavorable conditions pretty quickly.
Wind tends to swirl around Lambeau Field from early in the season, making life miserable for kickers. Frozen conditions make kicking from long distances more challenging, but that doesn't arrive until the second half of the season. The harsh wind becomes a factor much earlier than that.
You never truly know how a kicker will handle the pressures that come with real game situations in the NFL. The best kickers learn to shut out the noise and the stakes. We won't know how Smack handles that until September and beyond. Between now and then, though, we'll get a clearer idea of how he handles the physical elements of kicking.
The Packers went all-in by releasing McManus. Sure, he had a disastrous end to last season, but there was an argument for keeping him around at least through the summer.
In his first year with the Packers, McManus converted 20 of 21 field goals and all 30 PATs in the regular season. He had another miss in the playoffs.
In 2025, McManus missed seven kicks in the regular season and three more in the playoffs, although there was some nuance there.
McManus missed three kicks between Weeks 1 and 4, but two of them were blocked. He missed another four kicks between Weeks 8 and 10, but that was while the Packers bizarrely had him play through injury. He never looked 100 percent.
But after getting healthy, McManus made 29 consecutive kicks from Weeks 12 to 18 to close out the regular season.
Essentially, the Packers released him after one nightmarish playoff game, when he missed three kicks. He also struggled to consistently hit from distance.
It's reasonable that they chose to add competition in the draft, but moving on from the veteran so soon was a gamble, and the early indications suggest Smack is having his own consistency issues with the Wisconsin wind. And that's in June on a practice field. It won't get any easier across the road at Lambeau in October or November.
We always caution against overreacting to highlight-reel plays in the offseason. The same is true for the negative moments. Smack is a rookie and has time to adjust to his new conditions.
Even so, kicking from distance isn't the No. 1 requirement in Green Bay. Packers kickers can only make it if they learn to deal with the harsh conditions presented to them in the NFC North. That means being able to kick with swirling winds and frozen temperatures in Green Bay and Chicago.
Smack failed one of his first assignments against the Green Bay crosswinds. The Packers have gone all-in with their rookie, so they better hope it's just a learning moment and not a worrying glimpse of the future.
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