Brandon McManus Appreciation Thread

[FR Tim]

Its the NFL.

Ideally a Kicker should be 95% from 30-50 yards out and 85%-88% from 50-60. As a team the broncos have over paid for average kicking for years.

Elite kickers are 90%+ for the ENTIRE season.

To put things in perspective:

McManus career is 80.8%.

Elem career 80.7%.

Prater career 83.3% & 82.9% as a Denver Bronco

Prater had his best season in 2013 @ 96.2% and the Broncos kicked him to the curb for a DUI

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/ranking-the-nfls-top-10-kickers-entering-2022-justin-tucker-tops-list-thats-heavy-on-afc-north-kickers/

............in short, the team can do better for less hit on the cap

Correction… the Broncos are “hoping” they can do better for less.

None of those elite kickers are on the market or coming to Denver. Last tryout had a mediocre Maher and a couple others that have never kicked in the league. Not sure if any others scheduled to tryout.

Until we see some production and success from our next kicker. It is still hope.

[beastlyskronk]

He was money in 2015, since then he's been rather pedestrian.

McManus was 29th in the league in field goal percentage last year (minimum 20 attempts).

He was also 30th in the league in extra point percentage (minimum 20 attempts).

Realistically McManus kicked 89% last season. 2 of the misses were from 63 and 64 yards and 2 were blocked. That’s half of his misses right there.

McManus’s leg strength has been greatly exaggerated, his range in game isn’t really 60+ like he’s fooled every coaching staff into believing. He’s benefitted greatly from the mile high air.

I also don’t think he’s really all that accurate either, at least not consistently as he tends to have a low line drive knuckle ball style of kick that slices back and forth on the way to the uprights. So ultimately I do think it was right to move on from him, but with Payton’s track record at kicker, I’m hesitant to see the alternative especially this late into the game.

[Hadez]

Looked at how many kickers get 90%+ with 20 attempts or more. It happens more than I thought. Disappointed with our kickers now.

To be real it can get worse in the kicking game then what we have had though.

[rst08tierney]

My Top FA Choices :

Brett Maher 90.6%

Randy Bullock 85%

[Hadez]

Realistically McManus kicked 89% last season. 2 of the misses were from 63 and 64 yards and 2 were blocked. That’s half of his misses right there.

McManus’s leg strength has been greatly exaggerated, his range in game isn’t really 60+ like he’s fooled every coaching staff into believing. He’s benefitted greatly from the mile high air.

I also don’t think he’s really all that accurate either, at least not consistently as he tends to have a low line drive knuckle ball style of kick that slices back and forth on the way to the uprights. So ultimately I do think it was right to move on from him, but with Payton’s track record at kicker, I’m hesitant to see the alternative especially this late into the game.

I like looking deeper into accepted stats but I think the methodology is important.

One of those 64 yarders was with the game on the line in week 1. As I recall McManus told the coach he could make that kick which is why the decision was made to kick. That is on him.

Why do you excuse the blocked kicks? Was there a missed blocking assignment or was the kick low?

[beastlyskronk]

I like looking deeper into accepted stats but I think the methodology is important.

One of those 64 yarders was with the game on the line in week 1. As I recall McManus told the coach he could make that kick which is why the decision was made to kick. That is on him.

Why do you excuse the blocked kicks? Was there a missed blocking assignment or was the kick low?

Whether McManus believes he can make those kicks or not isn’t the point, he’s only made 1 from 60+ in his career and his kickoffs when away from Denver show that his leg isn’t as strong as he believes. The coaching staff shouldn’t have put him out there for those kicks regardless of whether he’s confident in his ability or not. As for the blocked kicks, those are rare in football in general. McManus has a low trajectory in general so that could be put on him, but at the same time the unit up front still has ways to prevent them from getting up to block kicks. So I consider those particular misses to be outliers that shouldn’t necessarily be accredited to the kicker.

That being said, I never considered McManus to be a consistent kicker. The way in which the ball comes off his foot leads to a lot of variance from kick to kick. He did well enough to get paid and good on him for that but he’s not someone I’d consider a franchise kicker. Yet on the other end, Payton usually hasn’t had a strong kicking game so I won’t be surprised if we end up with something worse this season.

[Hadez]

Whether McManus believes he can make those kicks or not isn’t the point, he’s only made 1 from 60+ in his career and his kickoffs when away from Denver show that his leg isn’t as strong as he believes. The coaching staff shouldn’t have put him out there for those kicks regardless of whether he’s confident in his ability or not. As for the blocked kicks, those are rare in football in general. McManus has a low trajectory in general so that could be put on him, but at the same time the unit up front still has ways to prevent them from getting up to block kicks. So I consider those particular misses to be outliers that shouldn’t necessarily be accredited to the kicker.

That being said, I never considered McManus to be a consistent kicker. The way in which the ball comes off his foot leads to a lot of variance from kick to kick. He did well enough to get paid and good on him for that but he’s not someone I’d consider a franchise kicker. Yet on the other end, Payton usually hasn’t had a strong kicking game so I won’t be surprised if we end up with something worse this season.

The point was you were trying to take misses off McManus to make him look like a 89% kicker. Like I said, I am open to a good faith discussion to maybe learn something. I am not trying to prove anything one way or another just trying to explore the concept.

When the kick was attempted because the player said he could do it that day then that miss should not be taken away imo.

The player should know he has made only 1 from 60+ in his career and on that day he was not in Denver he was at sea level.

[beastlyskronk]

The point was you were trying to take misses off McManus to make him look like a 89% kicker. Like I said, I am open to a good faith discussion to maybe learn something. I am not trying to prove anything one way or another just trying to explore the concept.

When the kick was attempted because the player said he could do it that day then that miss should not be taken away imo.

The player should know he has made only 1 from 60+ in his career and on that day he was not in Denver he was at sea level.

As should the head coach, it’s ultimately the head coach’s responsibility to put his guys in the best position to succeed. Wasting time to settle for a 60+ yard kick because the kicker said he could make it was not a good decision no matter how you slice it. A better coach would not have had him attempting that kick and thus it would not be a miss for him. Players are always going to believe they can do certain things whether they can or not, Leveon Bell still thinks he can play in the nfl as does Adrian Peterson. It’s up to the head coach to check the hubris of his players and that’s what Payton did by releasing McManus as McManus has shown to be somewhat of a diva in the past and he’s not going to accept that from anybody let alone a kicker.

[Hadez]

Agree about the coaching. It is not hard to find a post about how I think the coaching was in 2022. That was not the discussion.

The discussion was trying to make McManus a 89% kicker by trying to remove misses. Ultimately the FG misses are on the kicker. If he was asked to make a kick he said was out of his range...ok then. If there was a block because of missed blocking assignment...ok then. If the holder messed up..
Ok I get it.

Based on what you have said so far I think we should include all those misses in his percentage because I have not seen any good argument he was not responsible for those misses.

As should the head coach, it’s ultimately the head coach’s responsibility to put his guys in the best position to succeed. Wasting time to settle for a 60+ yard kick because the kicker said he could make it was not a good decision no matter how you slice it. A better coach would not have had him attempting that kick and thus it would not be a miss for him. Players are always going to believe they can do certain things whether they can or not, Leveon Bell still thinks he can play in the nfl as does Adrian Peterson. It’s up to the head coach to check the hubris of his players and that’s what Payton did by releasing McManus as McManus has shown to be somewhat of a diva in the past and he’s not going to accept that from anybody let alone a kicker.

[samparnell]

Agree about the coaching. It is not hard to find a post about how I think the coaching was in 2022. That was not the discussion.

The discussion was trying to make McManus a 89% kicker by trying to remove misses. Ultimately the FG misses are on the kicker. If he was asked to make a kick he said was out of his range...ok then. If there was a block because of missed blocking assignment...ok then. If the holder messed up..
Ok I get it.

Based on what you have said so far I think we should include all those misses in his percentage because I have not seen any good argument he was not responsible for those misses.

McManus' kicking performance in 2022 is a matter of record. He was 25 of 27 on XPAs. On FGAs he was 6 of 7 from 20-29 yards; 4 of 6 from 30-39 yards; 10 of 10 from 40-49 yards; and, 8 of 13 from 50+ yards which includes some attempts from over 60 yards. The missed attempts from over 60 count, but aren't nearly as big of an issue as the missed XPAs and FGAs from less than 40 yards.

If his leg is as strong as he seems to think it is, he should have produced more touchbacks on KOs than he did (51 of 73) As has been previously stated, by beastly I think, the English on his XPAs/FGAs is odd and a result of his kicking stroke and which probably accounts for some of his shorter misses.

FGAs from over 60 yards are rare because the LOS is no closer to the GL than the +43 (for a 60 yards attempt) On missed FGAs, the ball goes over on downs, so most of those attempts are at the end of the 2nd or 4th quarter in order to leave the opponent with little time in the event of a miss.

Brandon had a large contract for a Kicker and his release was expected by many in order to produce some extra cap space.

[Broncos1963]

I'm not a huge McManus fan but I think he's a very good kicker. Releasing him was a ridiculous decision, IMO. Signing a kicker who's been thrown across 10 teams, equally ridiculous.

Most of the off season, I have liked a lot. But this, combined with hiring Vance freaking Joseph gives me strong hesitation.

[Hadez]

I hope he does well for his new team as long as he not playing us.

He was a good pro for us.

[Spice 1]

I've got nothing against McManus, but I don't think getting rid of him is a big deal myself. He's a career 81% kicker. That's slightly below average by modern standards. If you look at the two most accurate kickers in the league last season, one of them played for two different teams last year and the other has played for three different teams in three years. Kickers don't make much compared to other players anyway, but I don't see anything wrong with cutting a kicker who doesn't justify his contract to clear a little cap space.

[Hadez]

One preseason game already missing him

How much cap did this save anyways? What did we do with it?

[Hadez]

He was perfect yesterday while his replacement is one of the reasons we lost.