Details emerge on why the Broncos cut kicker Brandon McManus

There were plenty of reasons for the Denver Broncos to move on from Brandon McManus but the timing of cutting the kicker was a little bit strange.

Enter 9News Broncos Insider and 104.3 The Fan contributor Mike Klis, who detailed on KUSA some of what may got Denver’s longtime kicker the boot. Aside from the obvious of Denver’s lackluster special teams from a year ago, which new coach Sean Payton has moved on from just about everything, there’s another bit that is new.

“You wonder why this move wasn’t made in mid-March… they waited till now, it makes you wonder if the fact McManus doesn’t goto all the team’s offseason conditioning. He’s a union guy, the union discourages players from showing up to the first and second phase of team conditioning,” Klis said. “It’s a change of culture by Sean Payton.”

The Broncos are moving on from Brandon McManus, so who will be Denver's next kicker? 🤔 #BroncosCountry

FULL STORY: https://t.co/we95pFAH2h pic.twitter.com/u0f3OznQcA

— 9NEWS Sports Denver (@9NEWSSports) May 25, 2023

Moving on from McManus earlier this week will save the Broncos $3.75 million on this year’s salary cap. Denver will have dead-money charges of $1,231,250 on the cap for the next two years.

McManus, a Temple product, hit at least 80 percent of his field-goal tries in all but one season from 2015 through 2021. But last season, his success rate dropped to 77.8 percent. He also missed two extra points.

And his field-goal percentage drop couldn’t solely be attributed to missing “Hail Mary” tries of 64 and 63 yards at Seattle and Baltimore, respectively. Last year, McManus ranked 28th among 34 kickers (minimum 10 attempts) in field-goal success rate from inside 50 yards.

However, the new details of Payton laying down the law, match with some of the other rumblings to come out of Dove Valley about the change of culture under the new head coach.

The NFLPA does tell players not to goto voluntary workouts. The NFLPA says, “Workouts are strictly voluntary; Club officials cannot indicate workouts are anything other than voluntary.” Punishing, or in this case terminating, McManus for not showing up to voluntary workouts would be a breach of the CBA by Payton and the Broncos.

McManus has already signed up to join the Jags while the Broncos look for a new man to fill the job.

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