Green Bay Packers special teams coordinator Cam Achord is not treating rookie kicker Trey Smack’s perfect preseason as a guarantee of a perfect fall.
Achord, speaking this week about Smack’s unblemished exhibition record, said the 23-year-old will miss at some point. The question, he said, is how the former Florida standout responds when that kick sails wide.
“At some point — whether it’s Week 1 or Week 18 — he’s going to miss. (In college) he didn’t let one miss lead to another,” Achord said. “He knows each kick is its own kick.”
The comment, reported Tuesday by ESPN Packers reporter Rob Demovsky, framed the central test for a franchise that has cycled through kickers since Mason Crosby’s long run ended after the 2022 season. Green Bay opens the regular season Sunday at Minnesota, with Smack expected to handle every field-goal and extra-point attempt.
Smack went 9 for 9 on field goals and 7 for 7 on extra points across three preseason games. His made kicks included attempts of 58, 59 and 51 yards, plus a 58-yarder in Pittsburgh that was wiped out when the Packers accepted a penalty. The numbers were a sharp contrast to an uneven start in camp, when he missed several practice attempts before settling in on game days.
The Packers invested draft capital to put him in that position. Green Bay traded two seventh-round selections to Seattle in April and took Smack with the 216th overall pick, the last selection of the sixth round. He was the only kicker drafted in 2026.
Thirteen days later, the club released veteran Brandon McManus.
General manager Brian Gutekunst said then that the staff viewed Smack as the top kicker in the class.
“We thought he was the best kicker in this draft,” Gutekunst said. “And Cam had a very strong opinion about that, as did I, and I thought it felt fortunate to be able to acquire him.”
Smack’s college résumé backed the move. In three seasons as Florida’s primary kicker, he made 53 of 64 field goals (82.8 percent) and 100 of 101 extra points. He converted 10 of 13 tries from 50 yards and beyond, a school record, with a career long of 56 yards. After missing three kicks in a 2025 season-opening rout of Long Island, he made 17 of his next 18 field-goal attempts.
That rebound is the quality Achord keeps citing. Kickers rarely go a full NFL season without a miss. League field-goal rates typically sit in the mid-80s, and Lambeau Field’s late-year wind and cold have undone more experienced legs than Smack’s.
Green Bay has learned that the hard way. Anders Carlson struggled as a 2023 rookie. Brayden Narveson failed to hold the job in 2024. McManus steadied the operation for a stretch, then faded in 2025, including a playoff loss at Chicago in which he missed two field goals and an extra point.
If Smack starts Week 1, he will be the Packers’ third rookie kicker in four seasons.
Achord arrived in February after Rich Bisaccia stepped down, inheriting a unit that ranked near the bottom of the league in special teams efficiency during parts of the last two decades. The new coordinator spent four seasons running New England’s special teams and two as a Giants assistant. He has preached that each snap is independent — a message that matches Smack’s college habit of resetting after a miss.
Smack has described pressure as part of the appeal.“I like to have fun with it. Pressure is fun to me,” he said after the draft.
Head coach Matt LaFleur has been more measured even after the clean preseason.
“Feel great, but same thing, he’s got to go do it again. That’s life in the NFL,” LaFleur said after Smack’s second exhibition game.
Sunday’s opener is indoors at U.S. Bank Stadium, a comparatively friendly first assignment. The harder tests will come later at Lambeau, where the Packers play their home opener Sept. 24 against Atlanta. Green Bay signed kicker Lenny Krieg to the practice squad last week as insurance, a reminder that the job is never fully settled.
For now, Achord is asking only that Smack treat the first miss the way he treated the ones in Gainesville. The coordinator is not predicting when it will happen. He is predicting that it will, and that the next kick is the one that matters.
