Sean Payton explains the decision to release Brandon McManus

The Broncos surprisingly released the kicker Brandon McManus earlier this week. It shouldn’t have been a surprise.

“Ultimately, you’re constantly looking at what’s best for your team,” says the head coach Sean Payton told reporters. “It takes a lot of time, money and everything you need. You know this better than anyone, transactions continue here from now until training camp. There may be a two-man player we still want to sign. We took a lot of that into account and then made that decision.”

Firing McManus saved the Broncos $3,650,000 in salaries and created the same amount in cap space.

In addition to salary, there is another element that may have influenced the decision. Payton is a student of Bill Parcells, and Parcells generally liked having his kickers and punters seen and not heard.

McManus boycotted OTAs last year and then showed up for the final sessions Explain why he didn’t show up. The year before was McManus one of the public voices speaking out against OTAs at a time when the union was trying to get more and more players to withhold their services during voluntary practices.

Regardless of the Payton Parcells perspective, given Wal-Mart’s very strong and successful efforts to avoid unionization, the union activity probably didn’t go down well with the new owners. (Google what happened after a small group of meat cutters in Jacksonville, Texas, became the first workers in company history to vote to form a union.)

So while McManus has something to add (as evidenced by Jacksonville’s decision to fast-track him), his release in Denver may send a not-so-subtle message to the dressing room. And above all to the players who can easily be substituted.

Sean Payton explains the decision to release Brandon McManus originally appeared on Pro football talk