Details are emerging as to why the Broncos kicker cut Brandon McManus

Details are emerging as to why the Broncos kicker cut Brandon McManus

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There were plenty of reasons for the Denver Broncos to leave Brandon McManus, but the timing of the kicker cut was a bit odd.

Enter 9News Broncos Insider and 104.3 The Fan contributor Mike Klis, who on KUSA gave some details of what Denver’s old kicker might make the boot. Aside from Denver’s obvious lackluster special teams from a year ago, whose new coach Sean Payton has left just about everything, there’s something else that’s new.

“You wonder why this move wasn’t made in mid-March… they waited until now, you wonder the fact that McManus isn’t going through all the off-season preparations. He is a union man, the union discourages players from showing up for the first and second phases of team conditioning,” Klis said. “It’s a culture change by Sean Payton.”

Switching from McManus earlier this week will save the Broncos $3.75 million off this year’s salary cap. Denver will have $1,231,250 dead money costs on cap over the next two years.

A product of Temple, McManus scored at least 80 percent of his field goal attempts in all but one season from 2015 through 2021. But last season, his success rate dropped to 77.8 percent. He also missed two extra points.

And his field goal percentage drop couldn’t just be attributed to missing “Hail Mary” attempts from 64 and 63 yards in Seattle and Baltimore, respectively. Last year, McManus ranked 28th among 34 kickers (minimum 10 attempts) in field goal success rate from within 50 yards.

However, the new details of Payton laying down the law dovetail with some of the other rumors coming out of Dove Valley about the culture change under the new head coach.

The NFLPA tells players not to go to voluntary practices. The NFLPA says, “Training is strictly voluntary; Club officials cannot indicate that training is anything other than voluntary. Punishing, or in this case terminating, McManus for not showing up to voluntary practices would be a violation of the CBA by Payton and the Broncos.

McManus has already signed up to join the Jags, while the Broncos look for a new man to fill the job.

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