The Colts are waiving kicker Rodrigo Blankenship, NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero reports. Blankenship had a difficult season opener vs. Houston, missing a game-winning field goal in overtime and sending two crucial kickoffs out of bounds. Instead of a win, the Colts came away from their Week 1 game with a tie.
After a tremendous college career at Georgia, at which he won the 2019 Lou Groza Award for best kicker in the nation, Blankenship signed with the Colts as an undrafted free agent in 2020. His rookie year was solid, making 86.5% of his field goals in 16 games.
However, last season he only played in five games due to a hip injury, and even when he played only made 78.6% of his field goal attempts. The poor start to the season was apparently enough for Indianapolis to move on.
According to Joel A. Erickson of The Indy Star, the Colts worked out veteran kickers Matthew Wright and Josh Lambo on Tuesday.
Additionally, Pelissero reports Indianapolis is signing kickers Chase McLaughlin and Lucas Havrisik to the practice squad. McLaughlin kicked for Indianapolis in 2019 and has bounced around the league since, while Havrisik is an undrafted free agent out of Arizona.
Blankenship is one of many kickers to have had a tough day during week one as several others also missed game-winning kicks. It seems, though, that Blankenship was on a short leash for Indianapolis, and missing the kick in overtime was the final straw.
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