Kicker
Battle: Brandon McManus vs. Taylor Bertolet
By: Sayre Bedinger
Right now the Broncos have no question about Brandon McManus as their kicker, but they brought in Taylor Bertolet this offseason and interestingly enough, it was the only special teams position where competition was intentionally signed early on.
The Broncos worked out some punters and long snappers, but didn’t sign any. There may be some frustration with the way McManus is playing compared to the way he’s getting paid. He has hit on 44 of his 57 attempts over the last two seasons, under an 80 percent clip for those two years combined. That’s simply not good enough.
The Broncos need McManus to return to the mid-high 80s or even 90s to keep him from being a liability in close games. He was just 2-of-7 from 50-plus last year while Bertolet was 4-of-7 from 50-plus in AAF games.