Not Ideal: Colts Have A Kicking Issue Heading Into Week 1
Source: Rob Carr / Getty
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: The Colts have a kicking issue…
Should I stop? Should I leave now? Bueller?
It seems like an issue that hadn’t been an issue until the final season or so of Adam Vinatieri has all of a sudden been an issue the last several seasons. It looked like the Colts corrected their kicking concerns with the signing of Matt Gay last off-season but not only was he a bit shaky in preseason but he is now injured. How significant is the groin injury? We don’t know. What we do know is his status for Sunday’s season opener against the Houston Texans is up in the air at the very least. It’s enough of a concern that the Colts signed Notre Dame kicker Spencer Schrader to their practice squad late last week.
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All this to say, this is not ideal heading into a season opener for any team. Let alone a Colts team that has a Week 1 losing streak that dates back over a decade. A Colts team going up against the heavy favorite to win the AFC South. Against a Texans team that is one of the off-season darlings of the entire NFL. A Colts team that is hoping to get off to a strong start with Anthony Richardson and that has a bit of a tough opening slate in September. There are a lot of factors heading into Sunday and I can’t imagine Chris Ballard and company could have thought a kicking issue could rear its ugly head on top of everything else.
We’ll hope to find out more regarding Matt Gay’s status as we approach game day but we also have to wonder what Chris Ballard mentioned last week that Gay was dealing with other stuff last season that he wasn’t going to get into. Was this also injury-related? Was it something else? Who knows. But the Colts have one of their most important openers in recent memory and now the reliability at kicker looks to be playing a heavier role than originally anticipated. If Gay can’t go, that means rookie Spencer Shrader gets the nod. That would definitely make every extra point and field goal attempt a lot more interesting to say the least.
It’s important for the Colts to get off to a good start this season. You’d hate for a kick or multiple kicks to cost you a potential win. You’d also hate for those kicks to be off the foot of a guy you weren’t anticipating being on your roster a week ago. But here we are…..AGAIN.
Not Ideal: Colts Have A Kicking Issue Heading Into Week 1 was originally published on 1075thefan.com
