Back after missing most of last season, Rodrigo Blankenship missed a crucial field goal that would have avoided the Colts’ first tie in 40 years. The team is now moving on from the third-year kicker.
Indianapolis is waiving Blankenship Tuesday, according to Tom Pelissero of NFL.com (on Twitter). The team may be set to hold a pre-Week 2 practice competition. Chase McLaughlin and Lucas Havrisik are signing to the Colts’ practice squad, Pelissero adds (via Twitter). Former Jaguars Matthew Wright and Josh Lambo also worked out for the team Tuesday, per the Indianapolis Star’s Joel Erickson (Twitter links).
This will mark an Indiana return to Indianapolis for McLaughlin, whom the team used during part of the 2019 season. An an Adam Vinatieri injury brought in McLaughlin, who had already kicked in games for the Chargers and 49ers that year. McLaughlin finished the season with the Colts, who replaced him with Blankenship in 2020. McLaughlin went 5-for-6 on field goals with Indy in 2019. He was 15-for-21 in 16 Browns games last season. A UDFA rookie out of Arizona, Havrisik was the Wildcats’ kicker for most of the past five seasons. His two 57-yard makes in college double as the Pac-12 program’s record. Havrisik also participated in the Colts’ rookie minicamp this year.
In addition to his 42-yard overtime miss, Blankenship sent two kickoffs — his final regulation kick and the overtime opener — out of bounds. The Texans scored on neither of the ensuing drives, but some with the Colts were more frustrated with those sequences than the OT field goal miss, The Athletic’s Zak Keefer tweets.
Blankenship has not been the Colts’ primary kickoff man for most of his career. Longtime punter Rigoberto Sanchez handled those duties when available. The latter going down during a training camp practice led to the Colts signing Matt Haack but using their kicker as their kickoff man in Week 1.
Last season, the Colts placed Blankenship on IR — after his injury in Baltimore contributed to a Monday-night collapse — and used Michael Badgley as their kicker in the final 12 games. The team did not bring Badgley to training camp, however, with Keefer adding it viewed rookie UDFA Jake Verity as the higher-upside choice (Twitter link). The Colts waived Verity as they moved their roster to 53.
A former four-year Georgia Bulldogs kicker, Blankenship signed with the Colts as a 2020 UDFA. Blankenship made 87% of his field goals as a rookie, though he was 1-for-3 from beyond 50 yards. This will be the third time in four seasons the Colts will have needed to make an in-season kicker switch. Vinatieri’s early-season struggles in 2019 led to a late-season surgery, beginning the stretch of uncertainty. Prior to that, the most notable in-season kicker change the Colts had made occurred back in 2009, when a Vinatieri injury prompted the eventual AFC champions to sign Matt Stover. Excepting the Stover year, the Colts used two kickers from 1998-2010 — Mike Vanderjagt and Vinatieri.
Blankenship, is that Dutch? I think that’s Dutch.
If I have this correctly the Colts have brought in two kickers to compete for the starting gig and signed two kickers to the practice squad.
Sounds like the coaching staff was split on the kicker’s situation so they brought in every suggestion. Now it seems like the coaching staff is waiting and prepared for the next miss. Has an NFL team ever imploded from a kicking battle?
The Colts worked out 7 kickers today and signed two of them. Instead of signing them to the active roster, they signed them to the practice squad. In other words, the audition / tryout process is going to continue throughout the week instead of declaring the winner off of just one workout. And they can elevate one (or both) from the practice squad for the game this weekend so there is no rush.
So …. The coaching staff has been undecided with the kicking situation.
And still is undecided.
I was right, it’s Dutch.
Seems like a bit of an overreaction. Dude missed a big field goal but if you cut a guy every time he missed and hold a weeklong competition between JAGs every time, you’re just going to repeat that process again over and over. There’s only so many great kickers out there.
I get you were frustrated with kickoffs but the article says he’s not the normal guy, so…..why’d you put him in that position to begin with. I don’t know, I’m not someone who pays close attention to the Colts but I thought I remembered him being good last year.
Blankenship had a hip injury last year and missed most of last season – he only played in 5 games.
You are probably thinking about his rookie season. He was average that year – he finished 16th in FG%. He also struggled with longer distances – the coaching staff would typically keep the offense on the field instead of kicking a FG if the attempt was going to be longer than 50 yards (he ended the season 1 for 3 for kicks longer than 50 yards)
Because the normal guy is our punter who is out for the year? Might want to learn something the situation before speaking. A kicker who can’t do kickoffs isn’t an NFL level kicker.
“Might want to learn something the situation before speaking.”
Riiiiight.
Plenty of kickers don’t handle kickoffs. You could sign a free agent to do that and still keep your kicker if you believe in him enough as far as fgs and xps go. Guess the Colts didn’t.
These guys are not on someone else’s roster for a reason, i.e., they miss more than the guy you just cut. Man up and admit you made a coaching mistake, as you don’t put a game onto your kicker unless you absolutely HAVE TO.
So just ignore the kicks out of bounds? You know, that basic skill all NFL kickers should have?