Brandon McManus shades Broncos after stellar month

One of the biggest moves the Denver Broncos made this offseason may be backfiring.

Sean Payton’s new regime cut longtime team kicker Brandon McManus in mid-May, ending the nine-year stay in Denver for the longest-tenured Bronco. The details on the timing and exactly why the 32-year-old was let go are murky but what is known is that McManus struggled in 2022 and cost the team a bit of cap space.

The Temple product had hit at least 80 percent of his field-goal tries in all but one season from 2015 through 2021. But last year, 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.

This season has been a return to good form for McManus, who took home the AFC’s honor for October’s Special Teams Player of the Month. He got the award for going a perfect 12-of-12 on field goals and extra points, while hitting four times from 50-plus yards. The kicker commented on the NFL’s announcement of the news with a gif saying, “you washed up.”

https://t.co/xmaCvGwYxi pic.twitter.com/W3eMeLDyUL

— Brandon McManus (@thekidmcmanus) November 2, 2023

This is pretty clearly McManus shading the Broncos, Payton and George Paton for moving on from him.

On the season, McManus is 17-of-19 on field goals, only missing once from 40 and 50 yards. He’s also a perfect 18-for-18 on extra points while having a career-high touchback percentage on kickoffs.

The Broncos saved $3.75 million to take on a dead cap hit of $1.2 million for cutting McManus, but a lot of that money was used on Wil Lutz. The kicker who now has the job after a trade sent him to Denver when Brett Maher and Elliott Fry failed to earn the gig as McManus’s replacement.

Lutz is 13-of-15 on field goals this year, missing one from 30 yards out and another from 50. He’s missed one of his 16 extra-point tries and hasn’t hit as often from way deep as the man who previously had the job. Meanwhile, Maher was picked up and cut by the Rams.

McManus’ cut was one of the bigger moves of the Broncos offseason not only because of his tenure but also because he had been very solid in the past. He rightfully got a small victory lap on Thursday, wins that seem easy to come by for his 6-2 Jacksonville Jaguars.

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