Packers K Trey Smack: 85 Is Biggest Number for No. 21 Player in 2026

Packers On SI is counting down the Green Bay Packers’ top 25 players for the 2026 season. This series continues with our No. 21 player, rookie kicker Trey Smack.

Brandon McManus might not have lost the Green Bay Packers’ wild-card playoff game at the Chicago Bears. But he certainly didn’t win it.

The veteran kicker, who was tremendous in 2024 in finally booting the Packers out of their post-Mason Crosby funk, missed two field goals and one extra point in the 31-27 loss at Chicago. That’s seven points in a four-point game. Who knows how the game might have played out had McManus been money, but it’s obviously quite possible the Packers would have lived to play another week.

General manager Brian Gutekunst moved boldly by giving up his two seventh-round picks to select Florida’s Trey Smack in the sixth round.

Why Trey Smack Is So Important

A good kicker has a strong leg and a strong constitution. A kicker capable of bombing 50-plus-yard field goals is practically a prerequisite in today’s game. More importantly, it’s the ability to ignore the magnitude of the moment to make a big kick. And on top of that, it’s the ability to not let one miss turn into three, which is what happened to McManus in the playoffs.

Over the last 10 years, almost 300 kickers attempted at least 20 field goals in a season. The median success rate is 85.3 percent. That’s the number that Smack has to meet or exceed. It’s obviously not easy to kick in Lambeau Field. A strong leg is needed to kick the ball through the cold and the wind. An ice-cold mentality is needed, too, to rise to the occasion when the weather outside is frightful and games and seasons are on the line.

It really is mind over matter.

Over the last 10 years, there have been 20 seasons of a kicker helping get his team to a conference championship game. From that group, 17 made at least 84 percent of their kicks. The other three (Jake Elliott, Harrison Butker and Robbie Gould) were good kickers who had down seasons.

There just aren’t many examples of teams achieving great things without at least a solid kicker.

Did the Packers do the right thing by drafting a kicker? History suggests that might not be the case, but big problems require big solutions.

“It’s always been you versus you, you know?” Smack said of the kicking competition following the release of McManus. “I think that’s just what I’ve always lived by, and it’s just how I’m going to go about it.”

Trey Smack’s Strengths and Weaknesses

First and foremost, Smack made kicks. He made 18-of-22 attempts during his final season at Florida. That’s actually mediocre. Last season, 96 FBS-level kickers attempted at least 15 field goals. Smack tied for 41st with 81.8 percent accuracy.

However, he was 5-of-6 from 50-plus yards. A strong leg is an absolute necessity when kicking in Green Bay.

That wasn’t the only reason why he was the consensus top kicker in this year’s draft class.

“Straight ball, accuracy. His ball doesn’t move a lot,” new special teams coordinator Cam Achord said at the start of the offseason program. “I’ve been blessed to coach a lot of guys that are really good. I don’t need a guy that can kick 65 yards, personally. I want the guy who’s going to put it through consistently from 58, 55 because we’re playing in Green Bay.

“We’re going to play in elements and you’re not going to need the 60-yard ball all the time. You’re going to need the 45-yard ball with a 14-mile-an-hour crosswind, so his ball not moving and stuff like that was definitely a big part for me.”

What Happens If Trey Smack Stumbles

This is a real question because Smack struggled in the offseason. In his four opportunities in front of reporters, he made 74.1 percent of his kicks. The leg strength is obvious; he easily made his longest attempt of the spring, a 58-yarder. He has to dial in the accuracy, which the Packers are betting on happening with time on task with snapper Matt Orzech and holder Daniel Whelan.

If Smack is too much like Anders Carlson, the kicker drafted in the sixth round in 2023 and was out after one season, and not enough like Mason Crosby, who the Packers drafted in the sixth round in 2007, a big decision will have to be made.

Can a Super Bowl-contending team really afford to be patient? The Packers don’t have a lot of margin for error, obviously, having been the No. 7 seed each of the last three seasons. Whether it’s September or January, one missed kick can mean an early start to the offseason.

Plan B would be Lucas Havrisik, who is the other kicker on the roster. He made just 15-of-20 attempts with the Rams in 2023, didn’t kick in a game in 2024 and made all four field-goal attempts for Green Bay in 2025, including a franchise-record 61-yarder before halftime of a come-from-behind win at Arizona.

Added together, he’s 79.2 percent on field goals and 83.9 percent on extra points. That’s nowhere near good enough. So, chances are, Gutekunst has a list of Plan C options on his ready list.

“I think he’s done an outstanding job,” coach Matt LaFleur said of Havrisik. “I think both those guys have shown progress in terms of their consistency of how they’re kicking. And that’s what we expect. Every competition should bring out the best in each other.”

Why We Ranked Trey Smack Here

Obviously, a good kicker is worth his weight in gold. That’s especially true for a team like the Packers, which expects to have a chance to compete for a Super Bowl in January and February.

Green Bay played four games that were decided by three points or less last season. Ten of their games were decided by one score – including a four-point win at Arizona in which Havrisik’s bomb before halftime was the reason why the Cardinals needed a touchdown rather than a field goal on their final drive.

Thus, even though the typical kicker will participate in less than 10 snaps a game, he can have an outsized impact on games.

If Smack is a long-term success, nobody will care that it took two draft picks to get him and the Packers threw McManus’ $1 million roster bonus into the Bay of Green Bay to be consumed by the walleye. If Smack stinks, the season probably will fall short of the Super Bowl once again and the team's quest to find Crosby’s long-term successor will continue.

Every year, I rank every player on the Packers roster based on talent, importance, salary etc. I will again this year, too.

For now, let's cut right to the chase. Here is a quick-hitting look at the 2⃣5⃣ most important players for the 2026 season.⬇️https://t.co/ezDAkl7vmd
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) June 17, 2026

SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE DAILY PACKERS NEWSLETTER

Add us as a preferred source on Google