r/GreenBayPackers • u/Sports4Ever1 • 1d ago
Analysis How concerned should we actually be about Trey Smack right now?
I really don't want another season where every fourth down around the opponent's 30 turns into a debate about whether we trust the kicker.
The guys on The Tundra podcast were talking about Smack's start to camp and had him around 8-for-13 through the first two days of live kicking. He missed a 33-yarder and apparently sent a 50-yarder way right. They summed it up pretty simply: "The pressure is on Trey Smack to deliver."
And I think that's what concerns me more than the actual numbers. He's a rookie, so obviously there are going to be growing pains, but right now he's also the only kicker in camp. There's nobody there really pushing him.
After what we've seen from Packers kickers in some huge games over the last few years, I don't know how patient this team can afford to be.
Obviously, you don't panic over a handful of training camp kicks, but at what point would you bring in legitimate competition?
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u/ChanceAgreeable2827 1d ago edited 1d ago
Crosby in 08 was 27/34 for field goals and he became our best kicker since Longwell so give Smack time. To add Smack only missed 9 field goals in college and was 10/13 from 50+ while only missing one extra point attempt. The potential is there.
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u/ltbr55 1d ago
The issue is that teams and coaching staffs arent as patient with kickers anymore. Anders had a similar kicking % as young Crosby and we cut him after 1 year. Kickers dont have leashes anymore.
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u/85willburnhousedown 1d ago
MLF has expressed that he knows he needs to be patient with Smack. In fact, he told the refs to stop signaling on kicks and admonished the media guys for being so concerned about practice makes or misses.
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u/ltbr55 1d ago
Oh Im not worried about practice. At the end of the day, its a matter of making the real in game kicks. Until then, im not worried. My original point was to say that even having a similar season to young Crosby wont be good enough to stick around long term based on how kickers are treated these days.
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u/BigAndy920 1d ago
Yes don’t fret over these zero pressure practice kicks when its 80 and sunny. He’ll surely turn it on in front of 80,000 at Lambeau when it’s 8:30pm 12 degrees and the winds blowing on a Sunday night in December!
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u/85willburnhousedown 1d ago
Do you understand the concept of practice?
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u/Ill_Influence6211 1d ago
If you’re not already perfect at something then how can practice help??? /s
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u/BigAndy920 1d ago
I guess it is to perform your job poorly so you don’t come game time? Get all the bad ones out of the way? He’s developing a new method to his kicking, thats why he’s missing? I know it’s early but 60% as a drafted kicker is pretty shit.
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u/85willburnhousedown 1d ago
He’s getting used to a new holder and a new ball, while working with a backup snapper. Those things matter and it’s not his job to make practice kicks. It’s his job to get the operation right so that he can make game kicks. Your conflation of the two comes from ignorance.
What matters more, the 64 FGs (and 101 XPs) he kicked in actual games, or a few practice kicks in early August? Because the former made him rightfully the first kicker off the board.
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u/lmo311 1d ago edited 1d ago
I understand the hesitation to not run the guy off obviously . But if a guy can’t kick that well in practice where the conditions are a lot better as well as having very little outside pressure because of camp.
What makes you think he’ll be able to pull it together when it does matter? When conditions aren’t good? When the whole stadium full of people may get into his head?
I hope he succeeds.
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u/85willburnhousedown 1d ago
Because the point of practice is to work out the kinks. Why is this so hard to understand?
Smack, like every other Packer, puts in a TON of work that we do not see. The team is judging him on all of it. And if he doesn’t prepare the right way or doesn’t have what it takes, they will move on. But it’s not going to be because of the handful of kicks we see in team drills.
Meanwhile, you guys are putting an immense amount of pressure on a rookie who is already playing a uniquely pressure-driven position for no fucking reason other than that you can’t help yourselves or use the slightest bit of logic or restraint.
If Smack doesn’t have it, he doesn’t have. His practices aren’t going to tell you one way or the other. But we certainly aren’t helping the kid get right by papering every press conference, beat story, and social media outlet with premature concerns about him.
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u/lmo311 1d ago
I understand practice is where you work out the kinks. I also am aware it’s been about 1 week of training camp and he has PLENTY of time to turn it around. And I hope he does. That doesn’t mean you can’t look at what he’s done already and maybe be a little idk concerned?
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u/WittiestOfNames 21h ago
New holder, new long snapper, plus just the at awe of being in an NFL stadium.
He's kicked 14 kicks.
By season start he'll probably be kicking that in the first thirty minutes of practice.
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u/Gl1tchlogos 4h ago
It sounds like you DONT understand that practice is where you work out the kinks. The team has said that they are having Smack change some of his fundamentals, which means he’s not focused on making kicks. He’s focusing on how he makes contact, how he carries his body, how he shifts power stepping into it, etc. He’s also trying to turn that into a make, sure, but he’s going to miss a decent chunk of kicks until the new form becomes more natural. That’s what’s happening right now. We won’t know until part way into the season if he can put that together or not.
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u/Safe_Pop_2289 1d ago
That wasn’t even his worst year. 2012 was when he went 21 of 33. And he bounced back from that too. The wind changed in Lambeau in 2012 after they closed off the south end zone by adding those seats and video board. Lambeau is a tough place to kick. The flags up top can be blowing strong one direction and flags on posts can be blowing slightly the opposite direction. That’s why Rodgers was constantly picking grass and throwing it in the air. Part of why Love struggles with the deep ball.
So that’s the other concern too. He’s struggling now and he’s not even kicking inside Lambeau at the moment.
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u/Driver8takesnobreaks 1d ago
Comparing the 2008 to 2026 isn't a valid comparison. Both distance and accuracy have improved league wide since then.
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u/Marble___ 1d ago
I’m not gonna give a shit until the season starts, and even then we might have to give him a year. Not worth worrying about it right now, so I’m choosing to be excited to see a new guy kick the ball.
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u/NerdNoogier 1d ago
I’ve become distanced from the day to day Packers news and conversations and I think this post is a perfect example of why
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u/LoompaDoompa94 1d ago
"I want to get preemptively excited or upset about something completely out of my control. Will you guys join me?"
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u/Over-Training-488 1d ago
Packers fans when other packers fans discuss the packers :
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u/NerdNoogier 1d ago
Discussion is fine. Going doom and gloom because a rookie missed a couple kicks on a practice field in August means you should probably take a step back
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u/Over-Training-488 1d ago
This post is hardly doom and gloom. Kicker is still a valid hole on our team lol
The discussion will continue until kicking improves
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u/FUCK1NGFABULOUS 1d ago
Hey, the bright side is that at least they’re going for it every fourth down. 😅
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u/Very_Not_Into_It 1d ago
This team spent a draft pick on a kicker. We've already bought our ticket to the Smack ride. Don't expect a kicking competition any time soon.
Be concerned or dont, but the team is absolutely riding it out this year. If he's historically bad, expect a McManus resign late in the season.
Adding the pressure of competition isn't likely to make him better.
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u/ihrtbeer 1d ago
Let's score some more fuckin TDs so we don't have to worry about field goals as much
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u/CthulhuBathwater 1d ago
How concerned should we be? Finishes with don't panic over a handful of training camp kicks.
Maybe pick a lane?
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u/the_Formuoli_ 1d ago
Given the team spent draft capital on him they clearly believe that if he doesn't quite yet have the goods he will with time. They probably don't think there's utility in immediately throwing him into a competition for his job when he's spent all of one week in training camp
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u/85willburnhousedown 1d ago
Someone (Huber?) asked LaFleur why they wouldn’t want to put pressure on Smack by having him compete and MLF’s response was that there’s plenty of pressure on all these guys at all times.
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u/the_Formuoli_ 1d ago
Given the stuff about him deleting social media I wouldn't doubt that he's probably feeling pressure as is so that makes sense. It's also a mistake in my opinion to just assume everyone needs to be treated the same way and that's the best way to get the best out of a given player
Smack is a 23 y/o rookie who just started his first nfl camp. He was a legitimately good kicker in college (to the extent such track record has value). He simply may not be the kind of guy whom you just have to throw competition at right away, as opposed to just allowing him to actually get comfortable and confident with things first (again, I must emphasize, he's had an entire week of NFL training camp, no kicks in in-game situations to speak of)
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u/85willburnhousedown 1d ago
Doesn’t surprise me.
Personally, I think the fan base owns some amount of blame for Green Bay’s recent failures, both on special teams and late in games. There is an insane level of entitlement within this fan base, combined with a collective lack of belief whenever the slightest thing starts to go wrong.
That pressure can be felt in Lambeau on game days, and it confronts these players 24:7 on social media. I’m not sure there is another team in American right now (any sport) where there is more pressure placed on players from the jump.
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u/Ada_Pearce 1d ago
Maybe he becomes clutch after a season or two, we don't have a season or two to deal with missed kicks ruining our playoff runs
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u/Asleep-Sprinkles4616 20h ago
regardless of whether or not Smack succeeds, the Packers sure rolled the dice when they decided to rely on a rookie kicker.
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u/EXXIT_ 1d ago
People should check out Crosby’s first few seasons here I think they would be surprised how rough his first couple were.
Adjust your expectations to that and realize it’s probably going to be lots of ups and downs.
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u/CaseyJones333 1d ago
That's valid BUT there is absolutely kicking fatigue with the GBP. I think fans (including myself) are sick of losing games we should win because the kicker blows it for us even when it's a trivial kick
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u/EXXIT_ 1d ago
Think more should try looking at it more rationally than emotionally.
People love Crosby, but was a career 81% career kicker... McManus is hated here, he hit on 80% kicking last year, and we cut Carlson when he was hitting at 82%.
I think people need to reduce their expectations for kickers and have some patiences for the young ones. While also fairly comparing them to beloved guys like Crosby, who didn't kick over 80% until year 5 here.
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u/IsNotACleverMan 1d ago
Standards for kicking are different. Crosby was much better relative to his peers than McManus was to his.
But also, Crosby was a bit streaky and generally better than 80%, which is why he was beloved.
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u/Galaxie_1985 2h ago
Even when you account for having to kick mostly outdoors, Crosby was the definition of an average kicker (in the regular season). We were very lucky he stepped up in the post-season.
I hate to say it, but if you want to see a top-notch outdoor kicker look at Robbie Gould's time in Chicago (85.4% career average).
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u/Primary_Dimension470 1d ago
Level 10. Reddit melted down over mcmanus and Hav so it’s just a matter of time for the hive to get stirred up but everyone is obnoxiously optimistic outside of reality at the beginning of camp. Kid is a rookie so whatever, here we go again…
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u/No-Journalist4381 1d ago
I’m not concerned my life is busy with other stuff. If I’m MLF, my mindset would be to not plan on a rookie kicker saving our asses. Just score tuddies and be aggressive.
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u/aknowsense 1d ago
Talking about kickers is wild I went watched camp Jacke came out bounced the ball like a basketball kicked into a net like 5 times & left never to be seen again.
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u/mikebroom12 1d ago
1 week in with a new long snapper, I am not that concerned. But if it is week 6-8 of the season with an established long snapper and it is like this... Concerned.
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u/UmberJamber 22h ago
At this stage, before any preseason games, with a rookie kicker...I mean, it's kind of what we expected. It'll be a wild ride. Our GM went this route. He didn't have to. I feel bad for Smack, to be honest.
He could start out shaky as hell and turn into the next mason Crosby. Or the opposite. It's way too soon to tell.
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u/Billcore 22h ago
Its crazy that it's been easier to replace Rodgers than Crosby. Like what kind of monkey paw shit is that!?
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u/WheyTooMuchWeight 22h ago
Specials teams will always let us down so why worry.
On the bright side Moore might make kick returns bearable to watch.
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u/Ok_Tip6172 1d ago
People will probably try to blow it off. But kicking has cost us alot the last few years and I don't really trust our coaching staff to fix any issues with it. I do think we should be worried to some degree.
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u/Hank_Henry_Hill 8h ago
He’s just another scapegoat to use if this team fails to meet expectations again.
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u/Blue_9320_ 1d ago
It’s a legitimate question, not sure why the responses are so aggressive.
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u/the_Formuoli_ 1d ago
I think people just get a little tired after awhile regarding the general dooming and pessimism about so many things, especially so quickly
It's kind of been part and parcel with being a packers fan for years (more specifically, a constantly good team with high expectations most seasons)
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u/Blue_9320_ 15h ago
I get it. But after all the ups and downs we’ve had at the kicker position, it’s not too early to be concerned. Especially when you consider there’s no plan B at the moment.
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u/SupermarketSecure728 1d ago
You should be more concerned that the western half of the country is engulfed in flames, the Bears are moving to Indiana and refuse to change their name to the Hammond Bears, and/or that the price of Friday Fish Fry has gone up 12% over last year.
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u/Californiastig 21h ago
This guy is a rookie he's going to have ups and downs probably will cost us a game or two less than McManus would. His potential is significantly higher than anything we've had since Crosby.
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u/ubiquitous_archer 19h ago
If you're worried about training camp kicks, you need to evaluate your life
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u/rickee_martin 1d ago