Working up Brandon McManus, I didn’t get quite what I expected. He’s a much better kicker than I realized.

The overall numbers aren’t good. He’s converted 81 percent of his career field goal attempts. That places him 24th among the 27 active players with at least 100 attempts. By that measure, you would expect the Broncos would be sniffing around, looking at other kickers.

Upon closer inspection, however, McManus attempts a lot more long field goals than anyone else. He’s attempted 51 field goals from 50-plus over the last five years, 12 more than anyone else. Over a quarter of McManus’ career field goal attempts, in fact, have come from 50-plus yards, by far the most of everyone.

Long field goals come with a higher degree of difficulty (McManus has made only 40 of his 72 career attempts from 50-plus, which is below average). So naturally when you mix in a bunch of 50-yarders with the other field goals, it’s going to deflate the overall success rate.

With that in mind, let’s set the 50-yarders aside and look only at the shorter kicks. On attempts inside 50 yards, McManus has converted 91 percent, and that’s pretty darn good. In the 32-team era, 65 kickers have attempted at least 100 such field goals, and only three have been more accurate than McManus.

I won’t dump all 65 of those names on you, but below find the numbers for the ones who’ve attempted a field goal in the last five years.

FIELD GOALS INSIDE 50 YARDS
YearPlayerFGFGAPct
2022Justin Tucker306321.953
2022Harrison Butker141151.934
2022Younghoe Koo102112.911
2022Brandon McManus183202.906
2022Josh Lambo112124.903
2022Jason Myers166184.902
2022Dustin Hopkins175194.902
2020Dan Bailey216240.900
2022Greg Zuerlein250278.899
2020Kai Forbath121135.896
2022Daniel Carlson119133.895
2022Ka'imi Fairbairn124139.892
2022Wil Lutz148166.892
2022Cairo Santos171192.891
2020Stephen Hauschka236265.891
2019Matt Bryant354398.889
2022Jake Elliott119134.888
2022Robbie Gould411466.882
2019Adam Vinatieri401455.881
2022Graham Gano273310.881
2022Jason Sanders110125.880
2022Ryan Succop297339.876
2020Stephen Gostkowski360411.876
2018Sebastian Janikowski335383.875
2022Chris Boswell178204.873
2022Michael Badgley89102.873
2022Randy Bullock197226.872
2018Chandler Catanzaro109126.865
2022Mason Crosby352407.865
2018Phil Dawson355412.862
2022Nick Folk293342.857
2018Caleb Sturgis107125.856
2022Matt Prater302353.856
2021Cody Parkey113133.850
2020Mike Nugent252297.848

We can also look at extra points. Since they were moved back, McManus has converted 95 percent of those. That’s not as impressive, but it’s also above-average.

These numbers, I believe, are telling us that McManus will be just fine. He’s going to be the Denver kicker. If Sean Payton can get that team somewhat turned around (which looks possible to me), McManus could be a credible scorer. He’s not one of my top-10 kickers right now, but he would climb up there on my board before the start of the season.

—Ian Allan