By 6 p.m. Sunday, we'll know who the Colts' kicker will be for the 2026 season.
The Colts will have to trim their roster to 53 players by that Aug. 30 deadline, which means one kicker – either Blake Grupe or Spencer Shrader – will be released. And as of this writing, with six days to go, the Colts aren't leaning one way or another on what looks to be, in a good way, a difficult decision.
"I don't think we could really go wrong," special teams coordinator Brian Mason said. "I think we have two really good kickers that are talented that can get the job done for us, and I think whichever one we go with is going to be really, really good for us."
Through four weeks of practice and two preseason games, Mason said Grupe has made 86 percent of his kicks while Shrader is at 81 percent. Shrader, however, has "really closed the gap" over the last two weeks, highlighted by a 61-yard field goal against the New England Patriots and 48- and 53-yard field goals against the Atlanta Falcons on Saturday.
Earlier in camp, Mason noted Shrader was having some issues pushing kicks left; those misses have diminished over the last few weeks. Shrader in 2025 was named September's AFC Special Teams Player of the Month and connected on 13 of 14 field goals and all 14 PATs in five games before sustaining a season-ending knee injury in Week 5.
"We knew that it wasn't going to be smooth for him to start training camp," Mason said.
Still, Grupe has been consistent since this competition began back in July. His miss from 36 yards against the Falcons was "uncharacteristic," Mason said – and Grupe hadn't missed a live kick in practice or a game until he pulled a 53-yarder wide left in an Aug. 6 practice. Grupe, of course, did not miss any of his 11 field goals and 10 PATs over five games with the Colts last season.
So with little separating two legitimate NFL kickers, Mason said to expect an uptick in attempts for both players during practice this week.
"We're going to put pressure on those guys and kick a little bit more this week than we would in a normal game week," Mason said. "And obviously we'll still split their reps in the game, which will be determined based on how they kick throughout the week in practice on Tuesday and Thursday."
Mason acknowledged that in-game kicks "carry the most weight," but he and the Colts' brain trust will zoom out and look at the entire scope of the preseason – including Saturday's game against the Detroit Lions at Lucas Oil Stadium – before making a call.
"We have two really good kickers," Mason said. "We're not going to judge somebody on one day or judge somebody in the first two weeks. We're going to see how do they progress through training camp, and who do we believe can be the best starting kicker for us for 17 regular season games, and then hopefully into the playoffs, right? So, that's not just based on statistics. It's based on hey, who's kicking the best right now that we think can kick the best over the entire regular season."
