Colts K Spencer Shrader expected to kick Week 4 despite groin injury; what we know
· Yahoo Sports
Brian Mason’s inner thoughts seemed to be the makings of a jinx in pre-game warmups Sunday morning at Lucas Oil Stadium.
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In reality, he may have been right all along.
The Colts special teams coordinator was watching Indianapolis placekicker Spencer Shrader go through his traditional warmups ahead of the team’s Week 3 matchup with the Texans and told reporters Tuesday that he remembers thinking to himself:
"Holy cow, the Spencer Shrader of last September is back. This guy looks really good. I thought last year in warmups, he looked as good as any kicker I’ve ever seen live … and he’s really getting back in rhythm here."
And then Shrader pulled up wincing. Just more than an hour until kickoff, Mason, other coaches and the Colts’ training staff were sent into scramble mode. Shrader complained of pain and tightness in his groin – a subjective injury difficult to measure the severity of.
As Mason explained Tuesday, trainers took Shrader to be evaluated and ruled Shrader still had his strength and wasn’t in any grave concern of worsening the injury.
Shrader’s results – 5-for-5 on kicks, including four field goals and one that tied his career-long (58 yards) – backed that up.
“I think he’s a really talented kicker with a really big leg,” Mason said. “Once we got into the game and saw him kicking again, we were like, ‘All right, he’s fine.’
“He appeared completely normal. If you did not know he had an injury, you would not have thought any differently.”
Beyond monitoring his workload as prescribed by the training room, Mason said Tuesday that Shrader appears to still be in the clear and fine to kick Sunday in London for the Colts’ trip to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to face the Commanders in Week 4.
He did note that after punter Rigoberto Sanchez’s solid performance on kickoffs while standing in for Shrader on Sunday – a precautionary move the Colts made to take some of the workload off Shrader – the team could consider a permanent switch if they believe it’s any sort of competitive advantage, either by Sanchez’s performance or to help keep Shrader fresh and not overworked.
Though he’s rarely done it over the past four seasons (17 kickoff attempts since the start of 2023), Sanchez was a regular for the Colts on kickoffs his first five seasons in the league.
“It’s a luxury that both of those guys can do that for us. We can still use both those guys based on how things play out during the week and how things get evaluated with the training room,” Mason said. “We expect Spencer to be able to go, no problem. We’ll limit or load some of his management based on what the training room tells us throughout the week.
“But he did an unbelievable job staying locked in and staying in his process. He had a great game, and I expect him to be able to move forward this week in the exact same way.”
In a more extreme situation, Mason said, Sanchez would be the team’s backup field goal kicker – something Sanchez has practice in though he’s never done so in an NFL game. It’s not something the team works on much in-season to not waste Sanchez’s leg strength but it’s a necessary contingency plan.
If backups were to be needed, Mason said, Shrader and Sanchez are both capable of filling in for each other. Second-year tight end Tyler Warren is the Colts backup holder for field goals if Sanchez were to be injured during a game. Rookie edge rusher Caden Curry and veteran tight end Drew Ogletree could be called upon as the team’s emergency long snapper.
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts K Spencer Shrader expected to kick Week 4 despite groin injury; what we know
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