The Green Bay Packers have taken a significant step towards improving their kicking unit as they traded up to select Florida Gators star Trey Smack, who ended up being the only prominent kicker picked in the 2026 NFL Draft. While most prospects are locked on their NFL dream since day one, that wasn’t the case for Smack, who was forced to give up his first-choice sport, lacrosse, in an unforeseen situation.

“I started kicking high school, but I was just kind of doing it for fun, and I wanted to go to college for lacrosse at the time, and then Covid hit, so they locked up all Lacrosse goals in Maryland, and so I was like, ‘Well, they can’t take down the field goal post’,” Smack said, as per Joey DuBois. “So I started kicking, started doing my thing, and somehow I went to a camp nine months down the line, and I got ranked 13th in the nation. The month after that, 11 months into kicking. I went to another camp, and I got ranked number one, and I was like, ‘Maybe I should do it.'”

Smack was an accomplished lacrosse player at Severna High School before deciding to kick in college. However, in a short time since taking up the sport, he got offers from Florida, Navy, Virginia Tech, and Air Force as the fifth-best kicker and 15th-best punter in the country by Kohl’s Kicking before choosing the Gators.

In Florida, Smack made 82.8 percent of his field-goal tries over three years for the Gators (53-of-64). He also hit 10 of 13 from 50-plus yards in his career, and last season he went 18-of-22 with a 5-for-6 clip each from 40-49 yards and 50-plus yards (he missed two from 30-39).

While these are solid numbers, many have questioned the Packers for trading both their seventh-rounders (Nos. 236 and 255) to draft a kicker. However, this step was required with veteran Brandon McManus coming off a disappointing 2025 season, which concluded an epic playoff collapse. McManus became the first kicker since 2007 to miss two kicks in the fourth quarter against the Chicago Bears in the NFC Wild Card round.

“Packers got literally KICKED in the stomach by Brandon McManus,” veteran journalist Skip Bayless posted on X. Hence, a change was necessary for the Packers. However, Packers GM Brian Gutekunst revealed another reason behind the franchise’s decision to draft Smack.

Packers GM explains why Green Bay traded up for Trey Smack

Smack was the first kicker drafted by the Packers since 2023, when they picked Anders Carlson, who stayed with them for only one season.

While drafting, Smack became necessary for them due to the situation with McManus, GM Gutenkust also had analyzed what was going to transpire in the seventh round and decided to make the bold choice to move up the draft for a kicker.

“I think it was the way the board fell, quite frankly. More than anything,” Gutekunst explained in the post-draft press conference. “We liked him quite a bit, and we think he has a good chance to be a good kicker in the National Football League, but the way the board was falling, where we were sitting in the seventh round, I didn’t feel great about what we were going to be able to select with those two picks, and didn’t feel great that he would be there then. So we made the decision to do that.”

The Packers made a bold but calculated move in trading up to select Trey Smack, addressing a clear need after McManus’s playoff struggles. With his impressive college numbers and rapid rise in the sport, Smack has the tools to become a reliable option for Green Bay in their pursuit to get back to playoff glory.