GREEN BAY — The easiest way to tell that Brandon McManus is back to being his confident, healthy self? The Green Bay Packers veteran kicker seemed almost disappointed that one of the team’s final four games will be in a climate-controlled environment.

That would be the regular-season finale at Minnesota on the first weekend in January. In the meantime, he’ll be kicking in Denver against his former team, the Broncos, on Sunday, then in Chicago on Dec. 20 and at Lambeau Field against the Baltimore Ravens on Dec. 27.

Both Packers-Bears and Packers-Ravens will be Saturday night games, so McManus knows it’ll be frigid — just the way he likes it.

“Hopefully, we take care of business, and then we would almost [certainly] be the No. 1 seed. Then we’d have the homefield advantage,” McManus said, referring to the face that the Packers would only have to win two games — both of them in the friendly, chilly confines of Lambeau Field — to earn a trip to Super Bowl LX.

“The fun thing is, once [the cold weather] gets to get to a certain point, it’s almost laughable and enjoyable when you’re out there. Because it’s like, the conditions are so difficult, it kind of almost relaxes you and you get to that point where it’s, ‘I’m going to stick to my technique and just swing it, and hopefully it gets there and goes through.’

“I guess that’s I’ve always been in a cold-weather place, because it’s I’ve been able to do it, right?”

While it’ll be balmy in Denver — CBS Colorado’s gameday forecast calls for a high of 62 degrees and partly cloudy skies — McManus faced challenging conditions plenty of times during his time as the Broncos kicker.

During nine regular seasons from 2014 through 2022, he made 223 of 274 field-goal attempts (81.4%) and 277 of 286 extra points (96.9%). During the playoffs following the 2015 season, when the Broncos won Super Bowl 50, McManus made all 13 of his postseason kicks, going 3-for-3 on extra points and 10-for-10 on field goals, including booting three field goals in the Super Bowl.

It’s that type of experience that makes the 34-year-old McManus—the oldest player on the Packers’ roster — so valuable for the stretch run and the playoffs as the Packers (9-3-1) get set to face the Broncos (11-2, the best record in the NFL).

And it’s why special-teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia and head coach Matt LaFleur are thrilled to have McManus kicking like he did before a quadriceps injury to his right (kicking) leg cropped up in early October.

“Obviously, it’s been really good. It feels like he’s back,” Bisaccia said. “He went through [a] slump, as we would call it, coming off the quad, but I think he’s back to who he is, the attitude, and the crazy body language and all those kind of things. I think he’s back and I think he feels like he’s hitting the ball the way he wants to hit it.” For me, that’s the saving grace of, I feel good about every time he goes out there to kick the ball.”

Having missed three games because of the injury, McManus’ cumulative numbers this season are underwhelming: He’s 15 of 21 on field-goal attempts (71.4%) and 26 of 27 extra points (96.3%).

But in the last three games — a Nov. 23 win over the Vikings, the Packers’ Nov. 27  Thanksgiving Day victory over the Detroit Lions and last Sunday’s win over the Chicago Bears — McManus hasn’t missed a kick. He’s made all four of his field-goal attempts (from 32, 30, 40 and 45 yards) and all 10 of his extra points.

That’s more like the guy he was last season, when he took over for inconsistent rookie Brayden Narveson in October and missed only one kick, going 20 for 21 on field-goal attempts (95.2%) and 30 for 30 on extra points. (He did miss a 38-yarder in the team’s playoff loss at Philadelphia.)

“It’s obviously good to feel good practicing, practice well, and just have the confidence that you know that you feel as good as you have and go out and execute,” McManus said.

Added veteran long-snapper Matt Orzech: “Fighting through an injury — especially a soft-tissue injury, and especially to your kicking leg — is always going to be tough because you’re a) a competitor and b) it’s hard to gauge how bad it actually feels and how much it’s affecting you, until you’re live.

“It’s awesome to have him back with that confidence and to see he can totally trust his leg again, too.”

While battling his leg injury, McManus watched as the team signed Lucas Havrisik as an insurance policy — and then saw Havrisik boot a franchise-record 61-yard field goal at Arizona on Oct. 19.

After making all 10 of his kicks in his first two games filling in for McManus, Havrisik missed two extra points at windy MetLife Stadium in the Packers’ Nov. 16 win over the New York Giants. After carrying two kickers on the 53-man roster, the Packers cut Havrisik late last month and re-signed him to the practice squad.

For his part, McManus said that while he didn’t lose confidence with a potential replacement on the roster, he did view it as another challenge to overcome, even after signing a three-year, $15.3 million contract in the spring that seemingly delivered job security.

“I’m not the youngest chicken on the block,” McManus said. “So even though you sign an extension here for three-year deal, this is the NFL, and I’ve experienced it. I’ve had good friends leave it. I’ve had to deal with it myself.

“So, if I were them, you always have to look out for the organization. But that’s my job, obviously, to go out there and kick his butt every day and continue to prove why I’ve been in this league so long.”

And he’ll aim to keep doing that Sunday against his former team.

“Brandon is who he is for a reason, and he’s extremely confident guy,” Orzech said. “So, it’s been good to see him fight through it.”

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