SPHS Alum Smack Selected By Packers In NFL Draft

Trey Smack took the rare step of dropping lacrosse for football as his sport upon graduating from Severna Park High School.

On April 25, Smack saw a return from his post-prep gamble.

With the Seattle Seahawks on the clock for the 216th pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, Green Bay placed a phone call. The Packers had two seventh-round picks and wanted to move up. Seattle, starved for picks after entering the weekend with just four selections, was a willing trade partner.

The trade was confirmed, and moments later, Severna Park High had its first-ever NFL draftee with the final pick in the sixth round.

“I was hopeful about getting drafted, and it became a surreal moment when it happened,” said Smack, who stood out at the University of Florida and saw his prospects rise even further with a strong pre-draft circuit. “You just hang out with your family (watching the draft) and if your name gets called, your name gets called. I’m so excited to be a Green Bay Packer.”

Usually only a select few kickers have reason to even hope to be drafted each year, and Smack was the only kicker taken in the 2026 draft. Rarer still is the scenario in which a team trades up to take a kicker.

But after hitting a 57-yard field goal in the East-West Shrine Bowl and a 60-yarder in the NFL Combine Specialists Showcase after being iced by the coaching staff, Smack pinned himself at the top of the placekicker ratings and the Packers made the move to go get him.

“We liked (Smack) quite a bit and think he has a good chance to be a good kicker in the National Football League,” Green Bay General Manager Brian Gutekunst said. “The way the (draft) board was falling, where we were sitting in the seventh round, I didn’t feel great about what we were going to have to select during those two picks and didn’t feel great that he would be there (without trading up). We think very highly of him and think he has a very good chance to succeed in this league.”

Gutekunst said Smack will be in an open kicking contest with incumbent kicker Brandon McManus, who is an accomplished 12-year NFL veteran but was dogged by accuracy issues last season, including three missed kicks in the team’s 31-27 loss to Chicago in the playoffs.

Smack has been given the No. 28 jersey.

After switching from soccer to football during high school and leaning into that as his full-time college dream, Smack excelled at Florida, becoming a two-time semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award, given annually to college football’s most outstanding placekicker.

In three years as the starting kicker for the Gators, he connected on 83% of his field goals (53 of 64) and 99% of his extra points (100 of 101). His mark of 10 field goals of 50 yards or longer, on just 13 attempts, stands as Florida’s all-time career record.

Now he aims to go from “The Swamp” in Gainesville to the “Frozen Tundra” of Lambeau Field in Green Bay. It will be a different kind of pressure and different elements, but Smack will lean on his Maryland upbringing and his Southeastern Conference (SEC) credentials to help him along the way.

“I started out kicking in cold weather. It’s a little different in Gainesville, so I’ve got to get back in that cold weather rhythm that I had,” Smack said. “But I feel like every kick is pressure. I played in the biggest stadiums in all of college football in the SEC. It’s just normal for me. Pressure is fun to me.”