The Colts’ placekicker competition is tight as it enters its final week – tighter, even, than what fans and media witnessed over the course of four weeks of training camp and a pair of preseason games. Publicly tracked reps in formal public practice drills and in-game reps give Blake Grupe more than a 15% edge over Spencer Shrader in field goal percentage – .872 to .708.
But when you account for all the reps the pair has taken including off to the side and pre-practice warmups, Grupe’s advantage shrinks to just 5% -- 86% to 81% -- a margin so tight, when you also consider the pair are in a virtual deadlock in public kicks over the last two weeks (82.4% vs. 77.8%), that overarching stats may play only a small role in helping special teams coordinator Brian Mason, head coach Shane Steichen and general manager Chris Ballard come to their decision by Sunday evening’s roster cut-down deadline.
“We have two really good kickers, and it’s really like we said two weeks ago – we’re not going to judge somebody on one day or the first two weeks; we’re going to see how they progress through training camp and who do we believe can be the best starting kicker for us for 17 regular season games and hopefully into the playoffs?” Mason told reporters Monday. “And that’s not just based on statistics.
“That’s based on who’s kicking the best right now that we think can kick the best over the entire regular season. Obviously, sometimes things don’t go perfect in practice, but you can clean that up and perform well in the games, and that’s going to be the most important end result. Who performs in the games certainly weighs the heaviest.”
And it’s hard not to read those parameters and not wonder whether Shrader, in fact, has the upperhand.
The Colts’ Week 1 starter in 2025 found himself in a deep hole at camp’s halfway point, going 15-for-24 (62.5%) in public attempts during a notably rough Week 2 stretch where Grupe made 21 of 24 attempts (87.5%) across three days. Through two weeks, the franchise’s midseason signing was 90% (27-for-30) – which Mason says is the team’s expectation for a regular season field goal percentage.
At that same point, Shrader was just 66.7% (20-for-30).
And it was a struggle that wasn’t unsurprising for the Colts, given Shrader was still just 10 months removed from tearing the ACL and MCL in his kicking leg in Week 5 last season after going 13-for-14 on field goals and a perfect 14-for-14 mark on extra points in his first full-time gig in the NFL. Before that injury, Shrader had shown the Colts the potential for one of the longer legs in the league, which one might expect, given his 6-foot-2 stature.
Compared to the 5-foot-7 Grupe, who does admittedly hold the franchise’s all-time record for longest field goal (60 yards) he set in the closing minutes of last year’s down-to-the-wire loss in Seattle, it means that Shrader’s ceiling is higher.
When ‘on’ during camp, Shrader’s kicks have a different trajectory – this louder thump, seemingly a higher arc and the ability on his longest makes – including a 61-yarder during the preseason opener in New England two weeks ago – to look as if they could be good from around 70 yards. Grupe clearly has much of that potential but it’s not nearly as natural or effortless, which then means it could be a bit more difficult to replicate.
Over the past two weeks, both are nearly identical on long-range kicks – 2-for-5 on kicks from beyond 50 yards for Shrader, 2-for-4 for Grupe. Both missed a 57-yarder in blustery conditions during a joint-practice with the Patriots, and when both got chances at a 61-yarder during that week’s game, it was Shrader, not Grupe, whose kick split the uprights. On their next time out that weekend, Shrader missed a 50-yarder (along with a 41-yarder) that Grupe made, and the former also missed a 54-yarder during joint practice with Atlanta last week that Grupe made.
But in Saturday’s preseason game, it was Shrader whose 53-yard field goal – along with another from 48 – looked near-perfect, while Grupe uncharacteristically shanked one from 36 – the worst miss from either kicker viewed by the public since training camp opened.
In short, the Colts seem to have one kicker who’s largely managed to keep an even-keel performance across all of camp, but who hasn’t connected – or outright missed – in its biggest moments, while Shrader sits on an upward trajectory with high-pressure makes, but as recently as last week still was missing more in practice on simpler repetitions.
“We have a really good situation to be in. We have two talented kickers. Shrader is starting to kick at the ability level that we expect from him to kick at, and Grupe has been really consistent throughout training camp,” Mason said. “We’re going to put pressure on those guys and kick a little bit more this week than we would on a normal game week – and still obviously split their reps in the game, determined based on how they kick throughout the week on Tuesday and Thursday.
“I don’t think we could really go wrong. I think we have two really good kickers that are talented who can get the job done for us, and I think whichever one we go with is going to be really, really good for us. I think they’re both going to be really good starters in the NFL this year, and I think they both have had really good things done throughout training camp.”
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: Beyond the numbers: How Brian Mason says Colts will decide kicker competition
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