Specialists: Heavyweight fight for the kicker spot
Specialists are people too.
The Broncos have four specialists on the roster right now:
K Brandon McManus
P Colby Wadman
LS Casey Kreiter
K Taylor Bertolet
Of all the players on that list, why is McManus the only guy with competition for his job?
Well, for kickers, evaluating performance is pretty simple. You either make your kicks or you don’t. McManus was hitting above 85 percent of his kicks from 2015-16. From 2017-18, he’s hitting on 77.5 percent.
That is still a decent percentage but a near eight percent drop on his kicks made is certainly a cause for concern.
It should be noted his percentage went up last year from 75 percent to 80 percent, but he missed five of his seven opportunities from 50-plus yards.
Taylor Bertolet, kicking in the AAF, hit on four of his seven attempts from 50-plus yards.
Fangio said that Bertolet would have to knock McManus out in a ‘heavyweight’ style fight.
We’ll see what happens in training camp and preseason play.