Packers vs Broncos Preseason: Trey Smack Keeps Kicking

The preseason scoreboard doesn’t carry long-term weight. The tape absolutely does. And in Green Bay’s 33-13 win over Denver, the little things kept popping — a clean operation, a kicker who keeps cashing in, and a roster bubble that’s starting to feel less like a bubble and more like a triage room.

Trey Smack was the story in the final stretch. Seven-for-seven this preseason. Four field goals Thursday night. That’s not noise. That’s a specialist forcing the front office to pay attention. In a league where the bottom of the roster is often built on restraint, not excitement, a kicker who keeps stacking makes is doing real work. Ask any special teams coach. They live in a world where trust is currency.

Smack is doing more than surviving August

There’s a reason a guy like Smack matters even in a game nobody will replay in January. Preseason is where fringe players either separate or disappear. A kicker with a spotless preseason line is the rare player whose résumé gets easier every week.

For a team like the Packers, this is exactly the kind of problem they want. Not drama. Not a camp competition that bleeds into the building. Just evidence. Clean operation. Good ball. Three points. Four points. Repeat.

Specialists live on a different edge than position players. There’s less room for “he’ll be fine later.” If the operation is off, the entire unit feels it. If the leg is steady, everyone relaxes. Smack’s 7-for-7 run doesn’t guarantee a job, but it pushes the conversation in the right direction.

Green Bay’s depth chart is getting thinner by the day

Preseason isn’t just about the stars getting a few snaps and heading back to the sideline. It’s an inventory check. Who helps on Sundays? Who gets claimed by someone else? Who is on the roster because they can do one thing well enough to survive?

That’s where games like this matter. A 20-point preseason margin sounds nice, but coaches are really scanning the margins. They want to know which backups can hold up in real speed. Which young players can make a tackle, finish a route, communicate a protection. Which veterans still look sharp enough to trust if injuries start piling up.

For Denver, this also stings a little because the preseason is supposed to be the proving ground for building momentum. The Broncos need clean answers out of these games, not just a lopsided final. That’s especially true for teams trying to recalibrate the back half of the roster. The league doesn’t care how talented your top 22 look if your 40-to-53 range is leaking value.

The other part of this: roster math. Every August, the hidden battle is special teams value versus positional upside. A reliable kicker can tilt that math fast. A staff might love a developmental linebacker, but if the kicking operation is shaky, the team has to spend practice time and emotional capital cleaning it up. Smack’s run gives Green Bay one less headache.

August is where jobs get won by the guys nobody’s talking about on Tuesday.

The preseason lessons are always about the bottom of the roster

This is the part fans skip past too quickly. The starters might set the tone, but the backups determine the week-to-week stability. It’s why these games still matter even when the results are mostly ceremonial.

And if you’ve been watching the league all month, this theme keeps repeating. We’ve already seen fringe quarterbacks fighting for oxygen in camp — the kind of pressure that showed up in our Will Howard roster spot coverage. Different team, same truth: August exposes who can handle leverage. It’s not about one flash play. It’s about stacking competent snaps until the staff can no longer ignore you.

That same lens applies here. Smack is not trying to become a household name. He’s trying to become unavoidable. In August, that’s the whole trick.

My read: the Packers are learning what kind of team they actually have

I’ve covered enough of these preseason nights to know this: the loudest thing in the building is rarely the most important thing. A long touchdown draw the crowd. A kicker quietly drilling from the middle of the field can influence the roster in a way that lasts months.

Green Bay’s coaches are probably treating this like a confirmation week. They want to see operational baseline, not fireworks. If the Packers can walk out of August knowing their kicking situation is stable, that matters. It changes how they manage fourth down, how they call games late, and how much risk they absorb in tight spots.

I also think this says something about the modern preseason itself. The games are shorter on meaningful reps than they used to be, which makes each rep more valuable. You don’t get to waste a kicking chance. You don’t get to fake certainty. A perfect preseason from a specialist is the kind of thing personnel people remember when the roster math gets ugly.

And for Denver, this is another reminder that preseason losses are less about the headline score than the pattern underneath it. If the Broncos are searching for more answers, they need cleaner execution from the second and third units. Otherwise, the gap between promising camp and real depth stays wide.

The final weeks of August have a way of sorting teams into categories. Some are still experimenting. Some are just trying to stay healthy. Some are quietly collecting proof. Green Bay looks like it’s collecting proof — and Smack is turning into one of the cleanest pieces of evidence on the board.

Expect the staff to keep watching the kicks, keep trimming the margins, and keep making the last few roster calls with a sharper eye than ever.

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