By Jordan Long
The Denver Broncos face the Arizona Cardinals next Friday for their first preseason game. There is an important special teams battle to watch, kicker. The Broncos have two competing.
The Broncos’ kicker for the past 9 years was Brandon McManus. During his time in the Mile High City, he made 81.4% of his field goal kicks. The Broncos couldn’t trust the leg of McManus though for the long attempts. When he lined up for a 50+ yard field goals, those were often missed. He was 40-72 or making 55.5% of those kicks. When he couldn’t hit those, it gave the opposing offense decent field position to march down the field.
The Broncos decided to cut McManus on May 23, 2023. Last year showed he couldn’t make the field goal consistently, nailing only 77.8% of them. Even though it was late in the offseason, cutting him saved the Broncos $3.75 million in cap space.
The Broncos have two players looking to earn the starting kicker position, Brett Maher and Elliott Fry. Maher is the veteran. He has played 4 seasons, 3 of the 4 with Dallas. Head Coach of the Denver Broncos Sean Payton is familiar with Maher since he played for the Saints in 2021.
In his career, Maher is 94 of 116 or making 81% of his kicks. Last year with the Dallas Cowboys, Maher was money. When the Cowboys’ drives stalled in opponents’ territory, Maher was able to put up 3 points on the scoreboard. He was 29 of 32 for a field goal percentage of 90.6%. His long was 60. It was a surprise the Cowboys let him go because he was so accurate in the regular season, although he had a poor playoff game, missing 4 extra points, an NFL record.
Maher is the favorite to land the job. The Broncos will let Elliott Fry have some playing time as well during the preseason. Fry has only attempted 6 field goals in his career, missing one of them. His long is 44 yards. This could turn out to be a tryout for Fry to have something on tape for the other 31 teams.
The Broncos know they need a new kicker this year. Both Maher and Fry have their opportunity to earn the job. Whoever can show the ability to kick the ball through the uprights during the preseason will be the starting kicker on week 1 when Denver faces the Las Vegas Raiders.
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