Blake Grupe vs. Spencer Shrader: Everything You Need to Know About Colts' Kicker Competition

The Indianapolis Colts enter 2026 with an apparent kicking competition between two proven players, both of whom were near-perfect for the team last season: Spencer Shrader and Blake Grupe.

It's as intriguing a situation as it is a rare occurrence, as there are hardly 32 viable placekickers in the NFL at any given time. The art of kicking footballs has changed over recent years, and has since resulted in a new wave of deep-ball scorers, but still, finding consistency remains as difficult a challenge as ever, and yet the Colts are rostering multiple viable options going into 2026.

We will be breaking down each of the Colts kicker's resume to date, what led them to this competition in question, and special teams coordinator Brian Mason's grasp on the situation as Indianapolis kicks off their three-day mandatory minicamp on Tuesday.

Spencer Shrader

Shrader was essentially a nomad to kick off his NFL career, being tossed around from multiple teams throughout his rookie season, jumping from practice squad to practice squad after suiting up as a spot-starter on gamedays.

The Indianapolis Colts initially signed Shrader as an undrafted free agent ahead of the 2024-25 season, but with Matt Gay still on the roster, he was relegated to practice squad duties. The Colts would then waive, sign, and release him weekly throughout the 2024 season, with Shrader getting his first bit of run with the Colts, where he took on kickoff duties and nailed all three of his extra point attempts in his NFL debut against the Houston Texans in relief duty for Gay (hernia).

The New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs would copy the Colts late in the 2024 season while they dealt with kicking injuries of their own, when they subsequently signed Shrader to the practice squad, signed him to the active roster for gameday duties, and then sent him right back to the practice squad after he suited up.

Despite this constant turnover, Shrader went 3-3 on field goal attempts and 6-6 on extra points in his two games with the Chiefs, and 2-2 on field goal attempts in his lone game with the Jets.

Shrader's (albeit small sample size of) perfection amidst adversity, coupled with Matt Gay's quick regression, resulted in the Colts moving on from the previous most-expensive free agent kicker contract and turning to a young player who had flashed greatness.

And the Colts immediately thereafter saw dividends be paid as Shrader kicked off his first season as a full-time starter in promising fashion, going 13-14 on field goal attempts (92.9%) and nailing all 14 of his extra point attempts. This start quickly took notice after Shrader nailed a 45-yard game-winning kick against the Denver Broncos in Week 2 of last season, one that came after an infamous leveraging call that wiped away Shrader's initial 60-yard miss and ultimately allowed him to right his wrongs in the moment.

His last extra point attempt of the year came against the Las Vegas Raiders where an inadvertent collision resulted in his aforementioned ACL/MCL tear which abruptly ended his season after five games.

The Colts soon turned to a familiar face in Michael Badgley for the next several games. The Money Badger did well on field goal attempts during this stretch, going 10-11 on such kicks, but his 86.7% success rate on extra points proved to be too big a hurdle. This led the Colts to pivot to Blake Grupe, who had been recently cut from the New Orleans Saints due to poor performance.

Blake Grupe

As noted, Grupe was cut from the Saints after going 18-26 on field goal attempts through eleven games. The mid-season move from Badgley to Grupe was questioned by fans and analysts alike, as Grupe's field goal percentage at the time was among the league's worst rates, but the Colts were prioritizing extra point success, so they were fine taking the risk during a stretch where not much else could go wrong.

Grupe immediately flipped a switch upon landing in Indianapolis, where he was perfect from the field during his five games of relief for the Colts. Grupe went 11-11 on field goal attempts and 10-10 on extra point attempts during this stretch.

The Colts were just looking for someone to make the chip shots, and in return, they received a viable kicking option to end the year.

During three seasons as the New Orleans Saints' placekicker, Grupe went 75-94 on field goal attempts (79.8%) and 86-88 on extra point attempts (97.7%). His five-game stretch for the Colts in 2025 is more than likely an outlier regarding his full resume, but this could have very well been the new change of scenery that any struggling player, especially a kicker, hopes for.

Brian Mason's Grasp on Competition

Mason is entering his fourth season as the Colts' special teams coordinator after he joined head coach Shane Steichen's first-ever coaching staff ahead of the 2023-24 season.

His first-time tenure as an NFL coordinator saw a rocky start but has seen improvement in each season since, and now the Colts are entering 2026 with high expectations from its special teams unit.

The Colts' kicking competition is set to be a much more lively affair than its competitions of years past. Typically, teams will roster a second kicker on its 90-man roster throughout the summer in case the starter is injured and/or regresses.

This time, however, features two kickers who are both poised to reclaim the role they left the 2025 season with.

“I think it's unique. Certainly, with two proven guys probably at this level is certainly unique. That's something – I coached in college for 14 years. There was a number of years where we'd have two good kickers that are competing. Obviously, in college you have a different roster makeup with more guys and certainly more specialists on the roster. Last year, we had a kicking competition between two kickers who were a little bit maybe more unproven. Similar competition and structure in the way that we'll do that," Mason explained of the kicking competition between Shrader and Grupe earlier this offseason.

"It's exciting. Certainly, we have two guys that we think are deserving and talented enough to be starting kickers in the NFL that are both great teammates and do all the right things and work really hard. So certainly, it's going to be exciting to see how those two guys compete. I think it'll bring the best out of both of them and I think one of them will certainly win the competition, 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.”

The Colts' kicking competition is even more of an interesting situation considering how both kickers, as well as Brian Mason himself, joined the NFL after spending time at the college ranks at Notre Dame. Grupe was Mason's last kicker at Notre Dame, whereas Shrader's lone year at said college came the year following, but previous bias is no factor considering jobs are on the line.

Spencer Shrader is viewed as the leader of the race between he and Blake Grupe as mandatory minicamp kicks off for the Colts on Tuesday. Mason said that Shrader is 'ahead of schedule' when it comes to his rehab process, but don't count Grupe out just yet.

As Mason suggested, it seems most likely that the 'loser' of this position battle will land on their feet and become a starter elsewhere, so the Colts are essentially entering a win-win scenario as summer break approaches.

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