The Kicking Carousel Spins Again: Why the Colts Are Auditioning New Legs After Week 13 Heartbreak
There is perhaps no sound in professional sports more deflating than the collective groan of a home crowd watching a football sail wide of the uprights. It sucks the air right out of the stadium. It leaves the quarterback staring at his tablet on the sideline, shaking his head. And for the Indianapolis Colts, that sound has become all too familiar over the last month.
Following a gut-wrenching loss to the Houston Texans, where the margin of error was razor-thin, the Colts are officially looking for help. League sources have confirmed that the team is hosting kicker tryouts this Tuesday, signaling that the front office isn’t content to sit on its hands while valuable points are left on the field.
This isn’t just due diligence; it’s a reaction to a problem that is actively costing the team positioning in the standings.
The Math Didn’t Math: How One Kick Changed the Texans’ Game
Here is the brutal reality of the NFL: kickers are often treated like offensive linemen. You usually don’t notice them until they mess up. But when they do mess up, it’s catastrophic.
On Sunday, Michael Badgley missed an extra point. In isolation, a single point seems trivial. But anyone who watched the end of that game knows that one point was the difference between life and death. Because the Colts were trailing by four points late in the fourth quarter, their strategy was handcuffed. Instead of having the option to kick a 48-yard field goal to tie the game in the final minutes, the offense was forced to go for it on a desperate 4th-and-9.
They didn’t convert. Game over.
If that extra point splits the uprights earlier in the game, the entire complexion of that final drive changes. The play-calling changes. The pressure on the quarterback changes. That is why special teams coordinator Brian Mason didn’t mince words on Tuesday.
“We’re certainly going to evaluate all kicker options that we possibly have to determine what puts us in the best position to convert all scoring opportunities,” Mason said. It’s corporate-speak for “we can’t keep doing this.”
Michael Badgley and the Case of the Yips
Badgley, affectionately known as the “Money Badger” during better times, is currently going through a slump that no kicker can afford in December.
The miss against Houston wasn’t an anomaly; it was part of a disturbing trend. That was his third missed extra point of the season. Even more concerning is the recency bias—over the Colts’ last three games, Badgley has shanked two extra points and a field goal.
In a league where games are frequently decided by three points or less, leaving free points on the board is a fireable offense. The coaching staff loves consistency, and right now, the kicking game is the most volatile stock in the portfolio.
Enter Blake Grupe: The Potential Replacement
So, who are the Colts looking at to stop the bleeding?
According to reports, former New Orleans Saints kicker Blake Grupe is headline the list of tryout candidates at the Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center. Grupe is an interesting case study. He was released by New Orleans just last week, landing him squarely in the free-agent pool.
The book on Grupe is a mixed bag. On one hand, he’s been automatic on the “gimmes,” hitting all 15 of his extra-point attempts this season. Considering Badgley’s struggles with the PATs, that is an attractive stat line.
However, Grupe hasn’t exactly been a sniper from distance this year. He went just 18-of-26 on field goals for the Saints before getting cut. For his career, the numbers are solid but not spectacular: 86-of-88 on extra points and 75-of-94 on field goals.
The Colts aren’t just bringing in Grupe, though. Reports indicate a handful of legs will be in Indy on Tuesday, though this group is notably different from the eight kickers who tried out following Spencer Shrader’s injury earlier in the year.
The Shadow of Spencer Shrader
It is important to remember how we got here. The Colts aren’t in this position because of poor planning, but rather bad luck. The kicking unit has been in a state of flux ever since Spencer Shrader went down with a season-ending torn ACL and MCL.
When you lose your starter to a catastrophic knee injury, you are essentially trying to apply a tourniquet to a severed limb mid-season. You aren’t looking for a Hall of Famer; you are looking for someone who won’t lose you the game.
Right now, the Colts don’t have that assurance. Whether they sign Grupe or another journeyman, or stick with Badgley for one more week, the pressure is mounting. In the AFC South, you can’t afford to play against your opponent and your own special teams unit.
Tuesday’s tryouts might seem like a minor footnote on the transaction wire, but make no mistake: for a team fighting for its playoff life, finding a right foot that can kick straight might be the most important move they make all month.
