Rodrigo Blankenship knows he has to prove leg in Colts kicker competition vs. Jake Ve

[JAFF]

https://www.indystar.com/story/sport...ob/7571517001/


INDIANAPOLIS — Rodrigo Blankenship is back in a place that feels all too familiar, the ground far from firm under his feet.

Blankenship has something to prove, even though the Colts did not bring back Michael Badgley, the veteran kicker who took over the job after Blankenship suffered a hip injury against Baltimore and never gave it back.

Badgley, who stumbled down the stretch, remains a free agent.

But Blankenship’s new competition is Jake Verity, a kicker with a cannon for a leg who spent his entire rookie season as Justin Tucker’s understudy in Baltimore, a role that has produced several NFL starters, most notably New Orleans Pro Bowler Wil Lutz.

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“That’s how it is at almost every position,” Blankenship said. “If a guy’s not performing to his capabilities, there’s going to be somebody knocking at the door.”

Blankenship has always been aware of that reality, but it was made painfully obvious by the way the 2021 season played out for the young Colts kicker. Brought in as an undrafted free agent from Georgia, Blankenship showed promise by making 86.5% of his kicks as a rookie and opened his second season as the starter.

A chunked warmup kick in Baltimore led to stabbing pain in his hip and three missed kicks against the Ravens, including the potential game-winner in a game the Colts lost, and the next thing Blankenship knew, he was watching from the sidelines as Badgley held onto the role.

Rodrigo Blankenship, who is having a perfect kicking game through the third quarter, during second half action on Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021, at Nissan Stadium in Nashville.
“It was both easy and difficult,” Blankenship said. “You want to be healthy, you want to contribute to the team’s success, but at the end of the day, I just needed to get healthy, be persistent with the rehab … and whenever I was given a new opportunity, I needed to be ready for that.”

Indianapolis ended up making Blankenship wait until the offseason.


Fully healthy, Blankenship took a couple of weeks off, then went back to Birmingham to train with Mike McCabe at One on One Kicking, the same place he’s trained since he was in seventh grade.

“I feel really good and healthy,” Blankenship said.

But he’s going to have to fend off Verity, an East Carolina product who impressed Tucker so much in camp last year that the Ravens legend predicted Verity would earn a kicking job out of training camp. Even if Tucker’s prediction didn’t come true, Baltimore kept Verity around on the practice squad the entire season, and when he became available in the offseason, Indianapolis pounced.


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Verity’s best attribute, his leg strength, has also been a weakness for the Colts the past couple of seasons.

Blankenship has made just 3 of 8 field goals (37.5%) from 46 yards or more, the second-worst mark for NFL kickers on at least seven long-distance attempts since 2018. Only Badgley — 8 of 22, or 36.4% — has been worse, which likely explains why he’s not back.


“Personally, I don’t feel like it’s a valid criticism, but I understand why people criticize,” Blankenship said. “They see that I missed a 50-yarder short against Green Bay, they see that I missed another 56-yarder short against Jacksonville. I know all the kicks they want to hold against me.”

Blankenship believes he’s got the leg to make the big kicks, the kind that often end up deciding big NFL games.

“I feel like I did just fine in college,” Blankenship said. “I made, I don’t know how many 50-plus-yard field goals in college. I set the Rose Bowl record for longest-ever field goal in that game, 55, it’s also a Georgia record for the longest field goal made in a bowl game. I personally don’t feel like it’s a valid criticism, but I understand that to this point, I haven’t proven I’m capable of doing that.”

He’s going to have to prove he can do it in the NFL.

For whatever reason, whether it be Colts head coach Frank Reich’s aggressive nature on fourth downs or a lack of faith in the kicker’s leg strength, Indianapolis hasn’t attempted a lot of field goals from 50-plus the past couple of seasons.

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At some point, that will change, and the Colts need a kicker who can make them. Cincinnati’s Evan McPherson proved last season how critical a kicker’s leg strength can be, helping send the Bengals to the Super Bowl.

Indianapolis is going to give Blankenship and Verity a chance to prove they can make those kicks from distance.

“Rod was our kicker last year, so in my mind, it’s Rod’s to (lose), but it’s an open competition,” Reich said. “I would say Rod would be on the depth chart as the No. 1 kicker right now, but is it a competition? Yes. … We certainly respect what Rod has done since he’s been here.”

Blankenship understands.

Even at Georgia, he was always fighting for his spot, and he knows it’s always going to be that way in the NFL.

“My mindset is I have to earn the right to be here,” Blankenship said. “It doesn’t matter what happened the year before, the game before, it doesn’t matter. I have to earn the right to be here.”

He’ll have his chance to prove himself again in training camp.

[Spike]

I hope Jake Verity wins the job. It will mean he outperformed Specs and I like the fact that he has a cannon.

[IndyNorm]

I still think we should have signed Dicker the Kicker