Colts Keep Kicker Rodrigo Blankenship

After a close kicking competition, the Indianapolis Colts chose rookie Rodrigo Blankenship over second-year pro Chase McLaughlin.

Robert Scheer/USA TODAY Sports

INDIANAPOLIS — For the first time in the Colts’ Indianapolis era, the team is turning to a rookie kicker to start an NFL season.

Undrafted Rodrigo Blankenship, who received a $20,000 signing bonus to compete against second-year incumbent Chase McLaughlin, won the job in a close competition. Although the Colts have yet to announce their 53-man roster before the 4 p.m. (EST) deadline, multiple sources reported that McLaughlin had been waived.

Colts head coach Frank Reich said earlier this week that both kickers had proven themselves worthy of NFL jobs. Blankenship had the early edge, then McLaughlin won some daily kicking contests, and they continued to trade those honors throughout training camp.

Blankenship, the spectacled specialist known as “Hot Rod” and “Rec Spec” because of his thick, dark glasses, shined at Georgia, where he won the Lou Groza Award given to college football’s top kicker.

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He’s just the sixth opening-day kicker for the Colts since 1984, the others Adam Vinatieri, Mike Vanderjagt, Cary Blanchard, Dean Biasucci, and Raul Allegre.

It’s an especially important position, considering the Colts had 15 missed kicks, including a league-high six extra points. McLaughlin was signed for the last four games after Vinatieri was placed on injured reserve with a knee injury that required December surgery.

McLaughlin made 5-of-6 field goals and all 11 PATs in four games, and received a one-year tender to return.

Because NFL preseason games were canceled by the Coronavirus pandemic, Reich tried to add pressure to the daily kicking competitions by splitting the roster and attaching players to each kicker. The players attached to the losing kicker on a given day had to run extra sprints.

In two camp competitions at Lucas Oil Stadium, McLaughlin was 12-of-15 and Blankenship 11-of-15. Both showed they had strong legs by repeatedly making 50-plus-yard field goals.

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(Phillip B. Wilson has covered the Indianapolis Colts for more than two decades and authored the 2013 book 100 Things Colts Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. He’s on Twitter @pwilson24, on Facebook at @allcoltswithphilb and @100thingscoltsfans, and his email is phillipbwilson24@yahoo.com.)