Matt Gay‘s time with the Colts has come to an end. The veteran kicker was released on Thursday, per a team announcement.

After a successful three-year stint with the Rams, Gay joined the Colts in free agency in March 2023. That four-year, $22.5MM pact came with high expectations and seemed to end Indianapolis’ efforts to find a long-term Adam Vinatieri successor. After only two years with the team, however, another change at the position has been made. This release creates $2.5MM in savings while incurring a dead money charge of $4MM.

Gay connected on 33 of 41 field goal attempts during his debut Colts season, good for an accuracy rate of 80.5%. That figure was well short of his success with the Rams, but – after undergoing hernia surgery – a rebound of sorts took place last year. The 31-year-old went 31-for-37 on field goals in 2024, including a 100% success rate on kicks under 50 yards. From long range, though, Gay only made three of nine attempts.

The former fifth-rounder only missed one extra point attempt during his two-year Indianapolis tenure, something which (coupled with his short- and medium-range accuracy) should help him land a new gig in relatively short order. With the draft approaching, however, the Colts could now find themselves in the market for a rookie kicker. As of now, only Spencer Shrader is on the team’s roster.

A 2024 UDFA, Shrader spent time with three different teams last season, making a total of four appearances. The 25-year-old played one game with the Colts and returned to the team in free agency last month. Schrader now finds himself atop the depth chart, but Indianapolis can be expected to bring in competition in the form of a veteran or a rookie in the near future.

The Colts made a kicker change ahead of Week 2 last year. They will make a signing to move toward stability in 2023. Indianapolis will add Matt Gay, Peter Schrager of NFL.com tweets.

Gay is signing a four-year, $22.5MM deal, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets. Considering the Colts’ kicker path since Adam Vinatieri‘s final season, paying up for a proven specialist makes sense. Gay, who spent the past three years with the Rams, is a Pro Bowl kicker who has made at least 93% of his field goal tries in each of the past two seasons. Gay is the fifth-most accurate kicker in NFL history.

Gay’s contract tops any accord ever given to a kicker in free agency, though Justin Tucker‘s latest Ravens re-up still leads the field overall. But Gay’s $5.62MM-per-year average checks in as the position’s second-highest figure. The soon-to-be 29-year-old specialist eclipses Jason Myers‘ recent Seahawks extension for second place behind Tucker.

Over the past two seasons, Gay has made 60 of 64 field goal attempts. Last season, Gay went 7 of 9 from beyond 50 yards. Although Los Angeles does not present one of the tougher kicker environments, Gay going from an outdoor venue to Lucas Oil Stadium should not exactly provide a higher hurdle for him. He will be expected to stop the Colts’ kicker carousel, one Vinatieri’s 2019 struggles and retirement started.

Vinatieri’s injury-induced retirement ended a 13-plus-season run in Indianapolis for the league’s all-time scoring leader. The Colts brought in Chase McLaughlin to finish out the season but added Rodrigo Blankenship as a UDFA the following year. A Blankenship 2021 injury, however, threw off Indy’s blueprint again. Michael Badgley kicked in the final 12 Colts games in 2021, and McLaughlin returned to Indy’s active roster — after illegal procedure penalties and a missed field goal led to a tie in Houston — in September 2022.

After beginning his career on a Buccaneers kicking merry-go-round, Gay will be tasked with finishing this weird kicker period for the Colts.