In the immediate aftermath of the Green Bay Packers' heartbreaking (and embarrassing) loss to the Chicago Bears in the Wild Card Round, I named five players who I believed "definitely" wouldn't be back for the 2026 season.
And the first four predictions came to fruition, as Elgton Jenkins was released and signed with the Cleveland Browns, Rasheed Walker signed with the Carolina Panthers, Romeo Doubs signed with the New England Patriots, and Malik Willis signed with the Miami Dolphins. Yes, those were somewhat easy calls, but that's not the point.
Now, as for the fifth prediction, I went with kicker Brandon McManus, who missed two field goals and an extra point in the four-point loss to Chicago, which capped off an extremely disappointing 2025 campaign for the 12-year veteran. Truth be told, I genuinely thought the Packers were going to cut him loose, which is obviously why I made the prediction in the first place.
And while that could conceivably still happen, the likelihood of such a move has diminished considerably, as he was recently paid a $1 million bonus.
Brandon McManus received a $1 million bonus on the third day of the new league year
McManus joined the Packers a little over a month into the 2024 season and had a fantastic regular season, connecting on 20 of 21 field goals and all 30 of his extra-point attempts. He did miss a field goal in the wild-card loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, but he was still rewarded with a three-year, $15.3 million contract, which included $5 million in guaranteed money.
Also included in the deal was a $1 million bonus for simply being on the roster on the third day of the 2026 league year, which has obviously now passed. It got a little lost in the shuffle of the free agency madness that overtook the league (not the Packers so much, of course), but it happened. And not everybody is going to be happy to see McManus back.
Not including the gaffes he made against the Bears in the playoffs, he missed an additional extra point and six field goals during the regular season. To be fair, there were some blocks in there, but that doesn't change the fact that an all-new metric known as Kick Value Added (KVA), which was created by FanSided NFL Senior Director Adam Fromal, proved that McManus was the absolute worst kicker in the entire league in 2025.
Also, to be fair, he did deal with a quad injury that forced him to miss a couple of games early in the year, and it clearly affected him when he returned, as he missed two field goals in his first game back. But he also downplayed the severity of that injury to get back on the field, and many called for him to be cut then, as that naturally brought trust issues into play. We're still not sure how he kept getting cleared, but that's another matter.
And outside of that, the fact that Lucas Havrisik stepped up in McManus' absence and connected on all six of his extra-point attempts and all four of his field-goal tries, including a franchise record 61-yarder against the Arizona Cardinals, had plenty of people asking for a change.
The Packers can still cut McManus, of course, but if they did so right now, not only would they be out that $1 million they just gave him, but they'd also take a $4,333,334 dead cap hit, according to Over The Cap, and would only save $945,097. However, if they do so after June 1, the dead cap hit for this year drops to $2,666,666, and the cap savings figure becomes $2,611,765.
Again, it doesn't seem likely at this point, but it's something to keep an eye on.