{"id":234277,"date":"2025-05-28T11:00:30","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T15:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=234277"},"modified":"2025-05-27T21:01:51","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T01:01:51","slug":"signing-spencer-shrader-could-be-a-great-move-by-the-colts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/05\/28\/signing-spencer-shrader-could-be-a-great-move-by-the-colts\/","title":{"rendered":"Signing This Special Teams Player Could Be a Great Move By the Colts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Indianapolis Colts signed kicker Spencer Shrader this offseason. Will the signing prove to be a great move?<\/p>\n

Spencer Shrader played college football at South Florida and Notre Dame. During his career, he made 156 of his 158 extra-point attempts. He also made 43 of his 63 field-goal attempts. Shrader then went undrafted in 2024. He later signed with the Colts as an undrafted free agent. He was waived and re-signed to the Colts\u2019 practice squad. <\/sup><\/p>\n

Shrader was elevated to the team\u2019s active roster for the Week 1 game against the Houston Texans<\/a>. In that contest, he made all three extra-point attempts in the losing effort.<\/p>\n

Shrader was eventually released. He went on to have stints with the New York Jets<\/a> and Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> in 2024. He finished his rookie year, making all nine extra point attempts and all five field goal attempts. Now, he\u2019s back in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n

Signing Kicker Spencer Shrader Special Could Be a Great Move By the Indianapolis Colts<\/h2>\n

Taking Over for Matt Gay<\/h3>\n
\"Matt
Indianapolis Colts place kicker Matt Gay (7) looks up toward the goal posts Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024, during a game against the Detroit Lions at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Matt Gay<\/a> was expected to remain as the Colts\u2019 kicker. The 2021 Pro Bowler signed a four-year, $22.5 million contract with the team in 2023. It was the largest free-agent contract for a kicker in NFL history. He\u2019s known for his impressive performance during Week 3 of the 2023 season. In that contest against the Baltimore Ravens<\/a>, Gay became the first kicker in NFL history to hit four 50+ yard field goals in one game. He kicked the game-winner in overtime as the Colts won 22-19.<\/p>\n

But earlier this offseason, the Colts decided to move on from Gay in favor of Shrader. Gay was released and eventually signed<\/a> with the Washington Commanders. Colts general manager Chris Ballard said the decision was far less about Gay and more so about how Shrader played last season (via Colts.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cHe leaves us and performs and performs at two different teams \u2013you know how hard that is? That’s difficult now, to go to two different teams and have to perform \u2013 that is not easy. You’re working with a totally different operation at both \u2013 different snapper and different holder \u2013 and to go in and be successful. This had more to do with Spencer than it did, really, with Matt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ballard believes in Shrader. We\u2019ll see if he can do a good job taking over for Gay this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

How Will He Perform?<\/h3>\n
Like every NFL team, the Colts will have several training camp battles. Anthony Richardson vs. Daniel Jones will be the biggest competition<\/a>. But don’t forget the kicker battle between Shrader and undrafted free agent Maddux Trujillo. Shrader will more than likely win the job, though.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
How will Shrader perform in 2025? ESPN released its 2025 stat projections. On the year, Mike Clay<\/a> is projecting that Shrader makes 28 of his 33 field goal attempts and 34 of his 35 extra point attempts. That would be great if that prediction comes true. It’ll be interesting to see how Shrader performs as he replaces Gay. Although he went undrafted, he has a lot of potential and upside. He has what it takes to be a successful NFL kicker.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Main Image: Jim Dedmon – USA Today Sports<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Undrafted kicker Spencer Shrader will take over for Matt Gay, who the Indianapolis Colts released earlier this offseason. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4890,"featured_media":234663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,36],"tags":[7800,31977,33473],"class_list":["post-234277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colts","category-nfl-news","tag-indianapolis-colts-news","tag-matt-gay","tag-spencer-shrader"],"modified_by":"Isaac Zuniga","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4890"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234277"}],"version-history":[{"count":46,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":234665,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234277\/revisions\/234665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}