The Indianapolis Colts lost faith in kicker Michael Badgley, an early-season replacement for the injured Spencer Shrader, because he missed three extra points. He was quite good on field goal attempts, though, missing just one of 11 tries. Badgley was released on Tuesday, in a bit of a knee-jerk reaction.
In his place, Indy signed Blake Grupe, a two-plus-season veteran with the New Orleans Saints. The kicker played for the Saints in 11 games this season and had the opposite issue as Badgley. Grupe could make his extra point attempts, but he missed eight of his 26 field goal attempts.
That means he made 69.2 percent of his tries, 33rd in the league (the league average is 85.1, and Badgley was at 90.9 percent). Was letting Badgley go in place of Grupe? Only time will tell.
Indianapolis Colts reportedly worked out kicker Justin Tucker before signing Blake Grupe
But the Colts could have made a far worse decision in signing a kicker than Grupe. The fact that they entertained a specific other option isn't good either, though.
Among the kickers that Indianapolis worked out in the days after the team's Week 13 loss to the Houston Texans was former Baltimore Ravens placekicker Justin Tucker. Tucker has been a tremendous player on the field. Off it, he has been reported to be the kicker version of Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson.
In other words, if you do massage work, you might possibly need to watch out.
Tucker has denied any wrongdoing, but he was accused by multiple women of misconduct during massage therapy sessions while he was in Baltimore. He has never been criminally charged, but the NFL did review the matter and suspended Tucker for 10 games at the beginning of this season for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy.
It is fine that the Indianapolis Colts want to look at every possible angle when trying to help the team win, but only to a degree. Adding Tucker would have put a stain on the organization. While not signing the kicker was the right move, not even bringing Justin Tucker in for a workout might have been a better one.