Rodrigo Blankenship didn’t exactly make his departure a difficult decision for the Colts.
The 25-year-old former Georgia kicker had a brutal Week 1 in Indianapolis’ eventual 20-20 tie with the Texas on Sunday, resulting in the team waiving him on Tuesday.
Blankenship shanked consecutive kickoffs out of bound, allowing Houston to start from their 40-yard line on both drives. He later missed a 42-yard field goal in overtime that would have won the game, sending it wide right.
It marks the end of Blankenship’s good-but-not-great two-plus seasons with the Colts.
He converted 45 of 54 field goals, but went 0-for-4 from 50 yards or more. Blankenship was also 52 of 55 on extra point attempts.
Indianapolis signed kickers Chase McLaughlin and Lucas Havrisik to their practice squad as the two will likely fight it out to play against the Jaguars in Week 2. The Colts also signed corner Tony Brown from their practice squad to take Blankenship’s spot on the roster.
The team first showed of a lack of confidence in Blankenship last season when he did not kick again after returning from Week 5 hip injury; instead the team opted to let Michael Badgley handle kicking duties instead.
