WESTFIELD – After two days of waiting, perhaps the most consequential roster battle across the Colts roster began in earnest Friday at Grand Park.
And after one day of kicking in front of the entire Colts roster, it’s Blake Grupe, who joined Indianapolis in the back-half of 2025 as the team’s third placekicker of the season, who holds the early training camp edge over last year’s Week 1 starter Spencer Shrader.
The pair each attempted six kicks within the first 20 minutes of Friday’s 75-minute practice, their second round of work in three days – but the most pressure-packed one after kicking off to the side while the rest of the team was engaged in other drills Wednesday. As he did in the final day of mandatory mini-camp in June, Grupe didn’t miss a kick, nailing attempts from 33, 37, 41, 45, 50 and 55 yards Friday after going 5-for-5 on June 11 in front of the team.
Having gone 3-for-5 in June in his last very public kicking drill, Shrader finished 4-for-5 on Friday, mis-hitting his attempt from 50 yards and hooking it left. The third-year product out of Notre Dame finished 13-for-14 on field goals a year ago through five games before going down with a torn ACL and MCL when Raider safety Tristin McCollum collided with the Colts kicker during an extra point attempt early in the teams’ Week 5 contest. McCollum was flagged for a personal foul on the play.
The Colts then turned to Michael Badgley for seven games, but his three missed PATs for a team that was fighting for a playoff spot led to his release. Having been cut himself just a couple weeks prior, Grupe soon found a home in Indianapolis and finished a perfect 21-for-21 on PATs and field goals – including 4-for-4 from beyond 50 yards. Despite interest elsewhere, Grupe opted to return to Indianapolis on a new deal during free agency and compete for the role he finished the season in.
Shrader was cleared to return to full work two weeks before the Colts closed OTAs, signaling the true start of his competition to retain his role against Grupe – a battle Colts special teams coordinator Brian Mason predicted in May is assured to be tight.
“We have two guys that we think are deserving and talented enough to be starting kickers in the NFL who are both great teammates and do all the right things and work really hard. Certainly, it’s going to be exciting to see how those two guys compete,” Mason said in May. “I think it’ll bring out the best of both of them, and I think one of them will certainly win the competition and be starting for the Colts, and one of them will be fortunate enough to start for somebody else.
“But I think they’re both going to be starting kickers this year in the NFL.”
As the competition kicks into high gear, Mason said in May the coaching staff will attempt to get both kickers as equal a workload as possible, with kicks in various atmospheres – from off to the side on their own in practice, to in front of the team, during joint practices and in preseason games all weighted differently. Even though Shrader is much taller in stature, both kickers have proven to have legs capable of making lengthy attempts. For Mason, the deciding factor is likely to come down to consistency, accuracy even within makes and the ability to make kicks with as much pressure as possible on the line.
“(Spencer) kicked in front of everyone (during OTAs) and that last time wasn’t quite as consistent as he was actually the week before, and we expected there to be a little bit of rust and some inconsistency since he hadn’t kicked in eight months,” Mason said Thursday. “I think he’s cleaned up some of those things this summer, and he continues to get better.
“Grupe, since he’s been here, has been highly consistent, and he’s still that same guy, so he has to continue to be that highly consistent guy, and I think it will be a really good competition. The difficult thing is we obviously can’t over-kick them, but we want to give them as many opportunities as possible so we can evaluate a fair competition, so we’re going to try and give those guys the exact same amount of kicks and as similar as we possibly can. It’s going to happen fast – it kinda always does – so just trying to get them as many opportunities as we can as even as we can to see how the competition goes.”
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts’ most important position battle of training camp has begun
Reporting by Nathan Brown, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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By Nathan Brown, Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network
