Trey Smack is mirroring former Packers kickers in all the worst ways

Stop me if you've heard this one before, but the Green Bay Packers officially have a kicker problem.

After a 20-17 loss to the Detroit Lions in which Trey Smack came undone, the Packers somehow find themselves exactly in the same position as they did last year.

Smack's NFL career began in a stupendous way. The kicker out of Florida was not only drafted, a rare feat for a specialist player, but the Packers actually traded up to get him. They did so after spending all of 2025 with Brandon McManus, a kicker they hoped would save them from their kicking woes, having suffered with the likes of Anders Carlson (another kicker the Packers drafted) and Brayden Narveson.

Trey Smack's career mirroring the Packers' problems with kickers

McManus' tenure with the Packers ended poorly. Despite being relatively solid during his time, McManus slowly grew less and less reliable, culminating in an awful performance in which he missed two field goals and an extra point in the team's playoff loss to the Chicago Bears.

After parting ways with McManus, Smack stepped in as the new promised prince, so to speak, a kicker who could not only kick with the best of them, but do so reliably.

Unfortunately for the Packers, and in the words of Matthew McConaughey's Rust Cohle from True Detective, time really might be a flat circle. After a great start to the season that saw Smack try to make a 59-yard field goal as his first official kick, things have slowly spiraled.

Against the Bears in Week 4, Smack missed two field goals and an extra point, mirroring McManus' issues against Chicago, even if they didn't mean as much as the team won 31-7 anyway.

Smack seemed to right the ship against Dallas. He was a perfect 3-for-3 and looked to have steadied himself a bit. That all fell apart against the Lions. In a game taking place in the ideal conditions for a kicker (a dome), Smack was abysmal.

The rookie kicker once again missed two kicks, both of which took place from inside 35 yards. For those unaware, a standard extra point in the NFL is now 33 yards, meaning Smack essentially missed two extra-point-level field goals.

The first kick, a 26-yard attempt, was taken from basically down the middle in terms of field positioning. The second, which came after the Packers did nothing with a drive that started on the Lions' 22-yard line, may have been briefly tipped, but it looked to be going wide right anyway and essentially cost the Packers the game.

The Lions would take over, move down the field, and kick a game-winning field goal as time expired. Now, while Smack's misses were egregious, I don't think they were the end-all, be-all of why the Packers lost. Several issues, including drops, penalties, and downright inconsistent play, factored in as well.

Some could argue the Packers wouldn't have even needed Smack had running back Josh Jacobs made what looked to be a makeable catch for a touchdown on that same drive. However, Smack's misses did account for six points the Packers didn't score, and in a three-point loss, that's just inexcusable.

Trey Smack still has the Packers' confidence, but for how long?

Despite the misses, Smack still seems to have the trust of the team, or at least head coach Matt LaFleur. After the game, LaFleur said that Smack would be the team's kicker moving forward, but acknowledged the issues.

"Certainly, you never want to go through it, but Trey's a guy that I think he's proven that he can do it, and I know he can do it," LaFleur said (via NBC Sports). "We've got to wipe this one clean and got to move on and hopefully we can be a little bit better."

While LaFleur's comments eerily echo those of what he used to say about McManus, Carlson, and Narveson, there's not much to be done. So the next question becomes: what exactly is Smack's issue? Looking at his stats...it's not entirely sure. When diving into Smack's early career stats, he presents as a bit of an anomaly in how you'd usually find a kicker.

He is a perfect 2-for-2 from 50-plus yards, but seems to struggle from the intermediate area. He's 3-for-6 on kicks between 40 and 49 yards, and now a total of 17-of-21 on kicks from 20-39 yards, including extra-point attempts. On the whole, Smack is now converting just 68.8 percent of his field goals, which would put him well under the numbers of some guys that have come before him.

Due to the fickle nature of kicking in the NFL, deciphering an issue is hard. Maybe it's something as simple as Smack overthinking kicks and thinking too mechanically. Maybe his chemistry with longsnapper Matt Orzech (who didn't work with him at all in the preseason) isn't as good as it was with Cal Adomitis.

Maybe it's a combination of all of these things! One thing is for certain, though: it's untenable for Smack to keep playing this way.

The Packers will likely still give Smack some form of a leash going forward, but it would be smart of them to make it a short one. If Smack continues to struggle like this, though, the Packers might not have any other choice but to look for help elsewhere.

Green Bay has already lived through years where the kicker dictated the outcome of games and seasons, and doing so again would not only be malpractice, but a huge mark on the dedication and drive of the team.

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