The Colts are officially working out kickers

[Steamboat_Shaun]

 

[GoColts8818]

As they should be.  Of that list Greg Joseph interests me the most.

[New Zealands #1 Colts Fan]

Couple of decent kickers on that list. Could all come down to how AV performs in week 3.

[IinD]

1 minute ago, New Zealands #1 Colts Fan said:

Couple of decent kickers on that list. Could all come down to how AV performs in week 3.

That's my feeling as well. If he's still having problems this week or next week you can't have no back up plan.

[indyagent17]

I would have thought Sanchez is the backup plan in the immediate. But if you're looking for long-term at least the Colts are doing that

[Dogg63]

Ballard is going to ensure the Colts do their due diligence. They have a place kicking issue in that AV has the yips. They have no idea how long he's going to have the yips, but if it drags out a while they need a backup plan. If that happens, then once he conquers the yips, they'll either go back to him or not. Regardless, it's their responsibility to have a succession plan. I only wonder how long they will give him to figure this out. If the game scoring margins are big over the next few games they can afford to let it slide. If not, they'll need to change gears.

[Colts_Fan12]

I'd bring back cole hedlund he did alright in preseason 

[luv_pony_express]

13 minutes ago, IinD said:

That's my feeling as well. If he's still having problems this week or next week you can't have no back up plan.

 

Personally, I don’t think he should get another week.  We don’t need a backup plan.  We need a kicker who can make FGs and PATs.  The kicker we have now has lost us one game already this season and damn near both of them....and not by missing 53 yarders, either.

 

They should give Vinny a legend’s exit — he has absolutely earned it.  But we shouldn’t be relying on him for any more actual games.

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

Glad to see this. Parkey would be a good option.

[luv_pony_express]

6 minutes ago, Chloe6124 said:

Glad to see this. Parkey would be a good option.

 

I think Parkey got a raw deal from Bears fans for the kick against the Eagles — that kick was clearly deflected.

 

But, that said, his record wasn’t very good prior to that.  In 2018, he was 7-10 from 30-39 yards.  That’s unacceptable — and probably the actual reason why he’s available for tryouts.

 

I know I sound like a broken record, but we should’ve kept Badgley when we had him.  That was a missed opportunity, rooted in too much sentimental attachment to Vinatieri.  But I suspect we’ll see Badgley kicking for the bolts for a long time.  Ships in the night, alas.

 

Hopefully they’ll find a good one in that crop of names.

[TrueBlue4ever]

The friendly confines of Lucas oil will be just the medicine to exorcise the demons! 

[CurBeatElite]

40 minutes ago, luv_pony_express said:

 

Personally, I don’t think he should get another week.  We don’t need a backup plan.  We need a kicker who can make FGs and PATs.  The kicker we have now has lost us one game already this season and damn near both of them....and not by missing 53 yarders, either.

 

They should give Vinny a legend’s exit — he has absolutely earned it.  But we shouldn’t be relying on him for any more actual games.

 

The one thing keeping me optimistic on Vinny is that he's not missing short... he hasn't lost his power... he just needs to straighten the ball out... in a couple instances, I am wondering if he and Rigberto need more time practicing their chemistry.

[HectorRoberts]

I really like Parkey he got a lot blame for that game but I hope he gets a second chance. I was advocating for him earlier this offseason when we thought vinny was going to retire.

[holeymoley99]

Eliott Fry went 15/15 fg's for the Orlando Apollos, I was there opening day he was booming in warmups too. Almost won the Bears competion vs Eddie Pineiro.

 

Parkey struggled mightly last season, hard pass.

 

Koo had a good AAF season as well, he flamed out for the Chargers a couple years back after getting a camp invite with his youtube video.

 

McLaughlin went 79/79 on pats for his career at Illinois, 20 of 25 on fg's last season (4 of 6 beyond 50), signed with Buffalo but couldnt beat out Hauschka (No shame in that).

 

Joseph isnt horrible but not special.

 

Hedlund did well for us in camp and may have the inside track but that club brought in so many bodies instead of having him on speed dial may not be a great sign for him.

[luv_pony_express]

21 minutes ago, CurBeatElite said:

 

The one thing keeping me optimistic on Vinny is that he's not missing short... he hasn't lost his power... he just needs to straighten the ball out... in a couple instances, I am wondering if he and Rigberto need more time practicing their chemistry.

 

Well, I hear what you’re saying.  And given that it appears that we’re sticking with him for now, I certainly hope your optimism is warranted.  But I started losing mine a while ago and have not been surprised by what’s gone on the past few games.  I think he’s done.  But there’s some merit to your reasoning.

 

I’m generally in the “hope is not a game plan” camp.  We’ve either got the tools we need to win games or we don’t.  And, right now, I think we don’t.  If it was anybody but Adam Vinatieri performing like this, he’d have been gone long ago...no matter how far he could kick the ball.

[Superman]

Good.

[csmopar]

Not surprised. 

[LuckyHorseShoe§]

I’ll take Parkey. When he double doinks again, we won’t have to feel bad about running him out of town because the Bears did it first

[Fisticuffs111]

1 hour ago, Colts_Fan12 said:

I'd bring back cole hedlund he did alright in preseason 

Yeah, 6-8 FG's, only missed longer kicks, 3-3 PATs. I think he could be plenty serviceable for the year.

[LuckyHorseShoe§]

32 minutes ago, holeymoley99 said:

Eliott Fry went 15/15 fg's for the Orlando Apollos, I was there opening day he was booming in warmups too. Almost won the Bears competion vs Eddie Pineiro.

 

Parkey struggled mightly last season, hard pass.

 

Koo had a good AAF season as well, he flamed out for the Chargers a couple years back after getting a camp invite with his youtube video.

 

McLaughlin went 79/79 on pats for his career at Illinois, 20 of 25 on fg's last season (4 of 6 beyond 50), signed with Buffalo but couldnt beat out Hauschka (No shame in that).

 

Joseph isnt horrible but not special.

 

Hedlund did well for us in camp and may have the inside track but that club brought in so many bodies instead of having him on speed dial may not be a great sign for him.

Hedlund would get us back the short ones but I doubt he’d be kicking game winners past 40

[Fisticuffs111]

6 minutes ago, LuckyHorseShoe§ said:

Hedlund would get us back the short ones but I doubt he’d be kicking game winners past 40

He actually went 3/4 from 40-50 in the preseason, not that that automatically means he'd do just as well now, but yeah. Missed his only kick from 50+ but there's no shame in that.

[LuckyHorseShoe§]

2 minutes ago, Fisticuffs111 said:

He actually went 3/4 from 40-50 in the preseason, not that that automatically means he'd just as well now, but yeah. Missed his only kick from 50+ but there's no shame in that.

I’ll be devils advocate and shame him for that.

Shame on you, Mr. Hedlund

 

For real though, although he’s not my number one choice, if Adam is done I guess the guy who was his understudy for several months wouldn’t be a bad place to start.

[VaAllDay757]

Good hopefully they sign one 

[Imgrandojji]

2 hours ago, Steamboat_Shaun said:

 

 

OK I have now successfully called 2 moves by Ballard.  Signing Brian Hoyer and trying out Younghoe Koo.  If Ballard trades Kelly sometime in the next few days I'll have the trifecta.

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

Would just Reich the chance to go for it more often on fourth down if he thinks it is out of the kickers range lol.

[Imgrandojji]

Just now, Chloe6124 said:

Would just Reich the chance to go for it more often on fourth down if he thinks it is out of the kickers range lol.

Depends on the situation but Reich has already proved he's not afraid to go for it on 4th down.

[ColtStrong2013]

1 hour ago, luv_pony_express said:

 

I think Parkey got a raw deal from Bears fans for the kick against the Eagles — that kick was clearly deflected.

 

But, that said, his record wasn’t very good prior to that.  In 2018, he was 7-10 from 30-39 yards.  That’s unacceptable — and probably the actual reason why he’s available for tryouts.

 

I know I sound like a broken record, but we should’ve kept Badgley when we had him.  That was a missed opportunity, rooted in too much sentimental attachment to Vinatieri.  But I suspect we’ll see Badgley kicking for the bolts for a long time.  Ships in the night, alas.

 

Hopefully they’ll find a good one in that crop of names.

 

The problem with sentimentality is that it runs deep in Indiana. New England, aside from Tom Brady (who is performing as good as ever in his old age,) can move on from anybody and their fanbase doesn't bat an eye because they value winning over everything. Indiana fans lose their minds (look at the fallout from the Manning ordeal.) So Ballard has that up against him as a manager. He has to balance the fanbase loving certain players and making the proper decisions. Although I think most organizations would be in a tough bind with Vinny's situation. It's just hard to cut that guy with all he has brought and currently brings as a teammate. 

[jvan1973]

1 minute ago, ColtStrong2013 said:

 

The problem with sentimentality is that it runs deep in Indiana. New England, aside from Tom Brady (who is performing as good as ever in his old age,) can move on from anybody and their fanbase doesn't bat an eye because they value winning over everything. Indiana fans lose their minds (look at the fallout from the Manning ordeal.) So Ballard has that up against him as a manager. He has to balance the fanbase loving certain players and making the proper decisions. Although I think most organizations would be in a tough bind with Vinny's situation. It's just hard to cut that guy with all he has brought and currently brings as a teammate. 

Broncos went to two superbowls.  Won one,   set multiple offensive records.    Andrew Luck retired at 29

[ColtStrong2013]

Just now, jvan1973 said:

Broncos went to two superbowls.  Won one,   set multiple offensive records.    Andrew Luck retired at 29

 

Hindsight is 20/20 isn't it? 

[jvan1973]

2 minutes ago, ColtStrong2013 said:

 

Hindsight is 20/20 isn't it? 

Not for those of us that wanted to trade the pick and keep peyton

[SouthernIndianaNDFan]

5 minutes ago, jvan1973 said:

Not for those of us that wanted to trade the pick and keep peyton

 

Everyone's a winner when they're calling shots that have already went in. Let me guess, you have Biff's Sports Almanac? There's no way to predict crap like that, if we're speaking in hypotheticals maybe Manning comes back to Indy that year and gets injured again, we pass on Luck, then take EJ Manuel or Geno Smith in the 13 draft and endure that nightmare. 

[jvan1973]

1 minute ago, SouthernIndianaNDFan said:

 

Everyone's a winner when they're calling shots that have already went in. Let me guess, you have Biff's Sports Almanac? There's no way to predict crap like that, if we're speaking in hypotheticals maybe Manning comes back to Indy that year and gets injured again, we pass on Luck, then take EJ Manuel or Geno Smith in the 13 draft and ensure that nightmare. 

I always bet on the best.    Imagine the hall of picks we would have got.   I was calling for this during that off season.  As we're many others

[csmopar]

Just now, jvan1973 said:

I always bet on the best.    Imagine the hall of picks we would have got.   I was calling for this during that off season.  As we're many others

And it’s just as delusional and stupid now as it was then...

[WoolMagnet]

The way Reich calls plays, we may go with NO kicker, and just go for it on 4th in the red zone,  and go for 2 after TDs.

ANALYTICS BABY !

[SouthernIndianaNDFan]

Just now, jvan1973 said:

I always bet on the best.    Imagine the hall of picks we would have got.   I was calling for this during that off season.  As we're many others

 

Yeah, I absolutely loved Peyton Manning, he was the reason I fell in love with football and the Colts, but I also try to take a business approach to these things as well. They made the right move in getting Luck, what happened with his retirement is the product of horrible management, but also a complete outlier like Barry Sanders and Megatron. 

[jvan1973]

Just now, csmopar said:

And it’s just as delusional and stupid now as it was then...

Not really.   We ended up up with very little in teens of success.   We could have had 3 extra first rounders.   It's impossible to know who they would have been,   but we would have been better off now

[jvan1973]

1 minute ago, SouthernIndianaNDFan said:

 

Yeah, I absolutely loved Peyton Manning, he was the reason I fell in love with football and the Colts, but I also try to take a business approach to these things as well. They made the right move in getting Luck, what happened with his retirement is the product of horrible management, but also a complete outlier like Barry Sanders and Megatron. 

Detroit didn't cut an all time great,   those guys retired

[SouthernIndianaNDFan]

Just now, jvan1973 said:

Not really.   We ended up up with very little in teens of success.   We could have had 3 extra first rounders.   It's impossible to know who they would have been,   but we would have been better off now

 

Man, I'm not even trying to go down that rabbit hole. If you critique things in hindsight there's so many moves that could've been more beneficial had they went "way X" rather than "way Z". Alternate planes of reality. Lol no, I'll pass. 

 

On subject tho, Vinny is cooked. They should make the proper organizational move and let him bow out. It seems like he wants to and they keep endorsing him and giving him votes of confidence. It's no longer the logical move. I'm all for keeping him, but I also want a legit QB in the 2020 draft, and keeping Vinny puts them in a much better spot to do that. He's gonna be in position to lose at least a couple more games, because this isn't exactly a team that's gonna blow people out, with Brissett they're just good enough to be in "field goal range".

[ColtStrong2013]

18 minutes ago, jvan1973 said:

Not for those of us that wanted to trade the pick and keep peyton

 

I was up in the air too... But Peyton wasn't exactly the only issue. It was the fact that keeping Peyton meant keeping the barrage of players that were washed up and overcompensated due to the sentiment mentioned earlier. We would have not only needed all those picks we would have landed from trading Luck away, we would have needed to hit on the majority of them to make up for the capspace problem we had with often injured players... and Chris Polian wasn't hitting much more than Ryan Grigson there those years. 

[luv_pony_express]

20 minutes ago, ColtStrong2013 said:

 

The problem with sentimentality is that it runs deep in Indiana. New England, aside from Tom Brady (who is performing as good as ever in his old age,) can move on from anybody and their fanbase doesn't bat an eye because they value winning over everything. Indiana fans lose their minds (look at the fallout from the Manning ordeal.) So Ballard has that up against him as a manager. He has to balance the fanbase loving certain players and making the proper decisions. Although I think most organizations would be in a tough bind with Vinny's situation. It's just hard to cut that guy with all he has brought and currently brings as a teammate. 

 

You may be on to something, in general.  But I don’t think this is a situation where the GM wants to move on, but feels compelled not to because of fan sentiment.

 

I don’t know how representative this board is of all Colts fans.  But it certainly seems that most people voicing an opinion here think that we need to move on from Vinatieri.

 

From what I’ve read, the Colts brass are the ones insistent that Vinatieri is still the guy we need.  All their public commentary has been 100% positive — which, considering what has transpired, is puzzling.