Matt Orzech's Calf Injury Forces Packers to Outsource for a New Long Snapper
A former three-year starter for the Cincinnati Bengals, Cal Adomitis will now compete for a job in Green Bay.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Green Bay Packers’ kicking competition could only remain on hold for so long.
Except now it isn’t really much of a competition.
The Packers released German-born kicker Lenny Krieg on Thursday, just two days after being signed following a successful workout. The 23-year-old never had the opportunity to showcase what is otherwise an impressive leg—he converted on all 14 of his field-goal attempts at the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine and booted a 57-yarder in a preseason game for the Atlanta Falcons last summer—because the Packers didn’t have a long snapper.
Rather than Matt Orzech, starting center Sean Rhyan served as a temporary replacement in Thursday’s practice. The field goals that Smack attempted weren’t exactly from the BP gas station parking lot across the street from Ray Nitschke Field—all three were 25-yard chip shots. Orzech, who has been the Packers’ long snapper for the last three seasons, has missed two consecutive practices to begin training camp with a calf injury.
General manager Brian Gutekunst and his scouting department needed to outsource for someone who can take the reins in the meantime; otherwise, Smack might as well skip practice altogether. 10 players were in the facility for tryouts on Thursday, and three of them were long snappers: Cal Adomitis, John Ferlmann, and Brent Matiscik.
According to Sports Illustrated, the Packers intend to sign Adomitis, a former three-year starter for the Cincinnati Bengals.
Orzech is just one year into the three-year extension worth $4.8 million that he signed with the Packers last summer, so he has some semblance of job security. However, it would cost the Packers merely $562,000 in dead cap if they were to move on from him if they feel that Adomitis is a better fit. At the time of the signing, Orzech became the third highest-paid long snapper in the league at $1.6 million per year. The 31-year-old has since dropped to eighth.
Gutekunst appeared to foreshadow the Packers’ intention to host candidates to fill the void left by Orzech.
“There’s some guys on the street, we’ll probably bring some guys in to work out,” Gutekunst said before the inaugural practice of training camp on Wednesday, adding that Orzech’s calf issue isn’t a long-term concern. “It does disrupt practice when you don’t have a guy who can snap it. Special teams guys don’t like that.
“With a rookie kicker, we want to have as much practice there as we can get. It would be nice to have Matt [Orzech] out there, and there may be a time where he’s able to do some of the snapping before he can do a lot of the running. That’s more of the issue, but hopefully, we can get him back soon because that continuity there is important.”
Across three years in Cincinnati, Adomitis started 49 games before spending 2025 with the Philadelphia Eagles. He was their long snapper for nine games in place of Charles Hughlett, who was placed on injured reserve with a core muscle injury he sustained early in the season.
Adomitis spent five seasons at Pittsburgh as a true freshman. He played in 64 consecutive games for the program and earned first-team All-American honors, as well as the 2021 Patrick Mannelly Award, which is presented to the best long snapper in the nation. He certainly has the resume that the Packers—or any team, really—would covet, but a resume won’t win you a starting job.
The Packers will have to ensure that their special teams operations can flow smoothly with someone new snapping the ball, and that’s especially true with a rookie kicker in the fold.
Uncertainty at the long snapper position is a foreign concept in Green Bay. Rob Davis spent 11 seasons (1997-2007) holding down the job before being succeeded by Brett Goode (2008-2017) for the next decade. The Packers drafted Mississippi State’s Hunter Bradley with a seventh-round pick in 2018, and he stuck around for the next four seasons, but by no means was he a consistent performer. In fact, Bradley was released midway through the season in the final year of his contract, and supplanted by Steven Wirtel.
For the most part, it had appeared that Orzech stabilized the position; he’ll just have to get past his calf injury as soon as possible to fend off a potential replacement in Adomitis.