Blake Grupe has never lacked confidence. But for a moment in 2025, he lacked clarity.
The 27-year-old's third NFL season was set to be his best one yet. During training camp with the New Orleans Saints, Grupe told his teammates and coaches he thought he was hitting the football better than he ever had before. He could count the number of kicks he missed during camp on one hand – on one finger, in fact – and was as confident as ever heading into the regular season.
"I felt like I was bulletproof," Grupe said.
But then, he started struggling. In the first 11 games of the season, Grupe missed eight field goals (he was 18-of-26), from distances anywhere from between 30-40 yards to 50-plus. He was released in Week 13 by the Saints, who originally signed him as an undrafted free agent in 2023.
Kicking in the NFL is as mental as it is physical – so for someone like Grupe, who felt so physically ready to perform at the highest level, the difficulties he experienced on the field in the first part of the season began to affect him mentally.
"With how everything went down there, you maybe question yourself a little bit, and just why stuff was happening," Grupe said. "I wouldn't say I ever lost confidence, but a better word would be like I was just confused."
The Colts brought Grupe in for a kicking tryout just a few days after he was released by the Saints, as he was still processing the massive life change. They were looking for someone to reliably make PATs and short-yardage field goals, and Grupe had a proven track record of doing just that despite his start to 2025; in 45 career NFL games, he missed a total of two PATs. And in his final collegiate season at Notre Dame in 2022 – current Colts special teams coordinator Brian Mason was the special teams coach at the time – Grupe was a perfect 49-for-49 on PATs and 14-of-19 on field goals.
During his Colts tryout, Mason saw the potential still in Grupe. He knew Grupe had the right (confident) mindset and proper fundamentals, and he believed that by working with experienced veterans in long snapper Luke Rhodes and punter Rigoberto Sanchez, Grupe could get back on track.
In the five games Grupe played for the Colts in 2025, he did far more than that. He didn't miss a single field goal or PAT, going 11-for-11 on field goals and 10-for-10 on PATs. He made all four 50-plus yard field goal attempts and set a new franchise record for longest field goal (and career-high) with a 60-yarder in Week 15. He was everything the Colts needed out of their kicker for the final stretch of the season, and then some.
"To come here and all of a sudden everything's right down the middle, it just makes you thankful for this team, these coaches, Rigo and Luke, for everything," Grupe said. "I basically just tried to get here and hit the ground running, show what I'm about, show what I can do. And at the end of the day, just be me and enjoy playing football."
"The game we play is wild, especially at our position and in this league, so when everything gets a little crazy you've got to make sure you look inward and make sure you're ready and just never really let that confidence slip, because there's so many factors that go into everything."
Grupe credited the ease with which he assimilated in the Colts locker room to both his prior relationship with Mason, and his friendship with kicker Spencer Shrader; Grupe recruited Shrader to Notre Dame in 2022, helping to convince Shrader to play for the Fighting Irish in 2023. And Shrader, while rehabbing from ACL and MCL injuries sustained in Week 5 of the 2025 season, helped Grupe find his footing as the two became teammates for the first time.
"To see a guy like that just have the competitive energy that he does, and just being able to ignore the negativity and the hateful comments – looking at Instagram comments from fans – and for him to ignore all of that and still be the person he is, to come here to transition mid-season with a new group and be able to do what he's done is awesome," Shrader said. "It's a really cool thing to see, and I think it's also what makes the Notre Dame connection and the Colts connection special."
With the conclusion of the 2025 season, Grupe's future with the Colts is uncertain as Shrader, who remains under contract with the team, expects to return healthy for the 2026 season. But Grupe, now with increased confidence and renewed clarity on what he's capable of accomplishing in the NFL, isn't worried about what the future may hold. Because if 2025 taught him anything, it was the importance of keeping perspective and never losing faith in himself.
"I just came here to play football, and so the rest will take care of itself," Grupe said. "Just to have everything play out (in New Orleans) and then come here and do your job again, it just reminds you that with the highest highs and lowest lows, just stay in the middle. Especially at our position, you're just kicking a little brown ball through big yellow posts at the end of the day."
