Working up Brandon McManus, I didn’t get quite what I expected. He’s a much better kicker than I realized.
The overall numbers aren’t good. He’s converted 81 percent of his career field goal attempts. That places him 24th among the 27 active players with at least 100 attempts. By that measure, you would expect the Broncos would be sniffing around, looking at other kickers.
Upon closer inspection, however, McManus attempts a lot more long field goals than anyone else. He’s attempted 51 field goals from 50-plus over the last five years, 12 more than anyone else. Over a quarter of McManus’ career field goal attempts, in fact, have come from 50-plus yards, by far the most of everyone.
Long field goals come with a higher degree of difficulty (McManus has made only 40 of his 72 career attempts from 50-plus, which is below average). So naturally when you mix in a bunch of 50-yarders with the other field goals, it’s going to deflate the overall success rate.
With that in mind, let’s set the 50-yarders aside and look only at the shorter kicks. On attempts inside 50 yards, McManus has converted 91 percent, and that’s pretty darn good. In the 32-team era, 65 kickers have attempted at least 100 such field goals, and only three have been more accurate than McManus.
I won’t dump all 65 of those names on you, but below find the numbers for the ones who’ve attempted a field goal in the last five years.
FIELD GOALS INSIDE 50 YARDS | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Player | FG | FGA | Pct |
2022 | Justin Tucker | 306 | 321 | .953 |
2022 | Harrison Butker | 141 | 151 | .934 |
2022 | Younghoe Koo | 102 | 112 | .911 |
2022 | Brandon McManus | 183 | 202 | .906 |
2022 | Josh Lambo | 112 | 124 | .903 |
2022 | Jason Myers | 166 | 184 | .902 |
2022 | Dustin Hopkins | 175 | 194 | .902 |
2020 | Dan Bailey | 216 | 240 | .900 |
2022 | Greg Zuerlein | 250 | 278 | .899 |
2020 | Kai Forbath | 121 | 135 | .896 |
2022 | Daniel Carlson | 119 | 133 | .895 |
2022 | Ka'imi Fairbairn | 124 | 139 | .892 |
2022 | Wil Lutz | 148 | 166 | .892 |
2022 | Cairo Santos | 171 | 192 | .891 |
2020 | Stephen Hauschka | 236 | 265 | .891 |
2019 | Matt Bryant | 354 | 398 | .889 |
2022 | Jake Elliott | 119 | 134 | .888 |
2022 | Robbie Gould | 411 | 466 | .882 |
2019 | Adam Vinatieri | 401 | 455 | .881 |
2022 | Graham Gano | 273 | 310 | .881 |
2022 | Jason Sanders | 110 | 125 | .880 |
2022 | Ryan Succop | 297 | 339 | .876 |
2020 | Stephen Gostkowski | 360 | 411 | .876 |
2018 | Sebastian Janikowski | 335 | 383 | .875 |
2022 | Chris Boswell | 178 | 204 | .873 |
2022 | Michael Badgley | 89 | 102 | .873 |
2022 | Randy Bullock | 197 | 226 | .872 |
2018 | Chandler Catanzaro | 109 | 126 | .865 |
2022 | Mason Crosby | 352 | 407 | .865 |
2018 | Phil Dawson | 355 | 412 | .862 |
2022 | Nick Folk | 293 | 342 | .857 |
2018 | Caleb Sturgis | 107 | 125 | .856 |
2022 | Matt Prater | 302 | 353 | .856 |
2021 | Cody Parkey | 113 | 133 | .850 |
2020 | Mike Nugent | 252 | 297 | .848 |
We can also look at extra points. Since they were moved back, McManus has converted 95 percent of those. That’s not as impressive, but it’s also above-average.
These numbers, I believe, are telling us that McManus will be just fine. He’s going to be the Denver kicker. If Sean Payton can get that team somewhat turned around (which looks possible to me), McManus could be a credible scorer. He’s not one of my top-10 kickers right now, but he would climb up there on my board before the start of the season.
—Ian Allan