Oh, ladies and gentlemen, welcome once again to the Packernet podcast.

I am your host and resident fanalyst.

As always, Ryan Schlipp.

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datam. Oki dokey. Um, I was, uh, well, I guess we should get through, uh, some of the,

some of the news and notesy stuff. I was going to do a breaking news thing on this and then I thought,

you know, I should, but why don a breaking news thing on this, and then I thought, you know,

I should, but why don't we just go ahead and get started on the podcast here? How to not run a

business 101. So the big news, we won't beat around the bush. We'll kind of circle back to some

Viking stuff. But the big news here, Brandon McManus was released. And, you know, it's kind of funny slash annoying because I'll have these kind of thoughts in my head in terms of like, I don't know how you manage this. It's like we've talked about with the offensive line and all these things. It doesn't make sense. And then the Packers do something. You're like, oh, oh, yeah. No, no, no. Now I get it. The tension I've had, and I don't think I've brought it up at all, obviously, so it sounds like I'm making it up, although I'm calling myself stupid in the process. So I'm not. Is, you know, we talk about, well, there's going to be a kicking competition

between McManus and Smack, but is there really, is there really ever going to be a kicking

competition? Smack is not going to lose the job. They're not going to not give him the job.

There's no way you drafted a guy and McManus, even if he's better, they're going to be like, well, I guess McManus stays and Smith. No, smack is going to, they're going to give him an opportunity. And because they're going to give him an opportunity, they're not going to give McManus an opportunity. So it absolutely makes sense. Yes, you bring kickers in for whatever reason, you know, quote unquote competition, but they're going to have kickers in there doing whatever. And maybe they won't now because they drafted Smack. I don't know. Maybe they're just going to full on like, you're the dude or whatever. I don't know. Doesn't matter. The point is this was very obvious, and I freaking missed it.

I mean, not that we didn't kind of know Smack was going to win the job,

but the fact that the competition isn't a competition, and so why waste time?

Not only are we taking snaps away from Smack, but it's the right thing to do by McManus,

because, and McManus may have even pushed this a little bit to say,

look, I know I'm not going to win this job. I'd like to be, I'd like to be released.

Now, there may have been a question of, did they try to trade him?

And that was kind of, I know, I know that question had come up at some point, and I had kind of mentioned that if there's any value there, it would make sense to do so.

Maybe the Packers just try to do right by him and just let him go.

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