Strong starts for Indianapolis Colts' kickers Spencer Shrader, Maddux Trujillo

USA Today

11 hours ago

Strong starts for Indianapolis Colts' kickers Spencer Shrader, Maddux Trujillo The Indianapolis Colts' kickers, Spencer Shrader and Maddux Trujillo are off to strong starts in the team's OTA practices.
The Indianapolis Colts' kickers, Spencer Shrader and Maddux Trujillo are off to strong starts in the team's OTA practices.
According to Jake Arthur of SI's Horseshoe Huddle, during Thursday's OTA practice that was open to the media, Shrader was 4-for-4 on field goal attempts, making kicks from 33, 40, 45, and 53 yards.
Trujillo would go 4-for-4 as well on the same distance kicks, and also made one more during a two-minute drill to finish the day 5-for-5 overall. With Trujillo specifically, Arthur noted his power.
"It was quite noticeable how much the ball essentially explodes off Trujillo's foot," wrote Arthur. "He made multiple kicks of 60-plus yards in college at Temple."
Now, of course, the caveat here is that this is only one practice, and I would guess this wasn't the first time that these two have kicked during OTAs; it just happened to be the first time that they kicked in front of the media.
The Colts signed Shrader in free agency earlier this offseason, before eventually releasing veteran Matt Gay. They then signed Trujillo following the NFL draft as an undrafted rookie.
Shrader spent the 2024 offseason with the Colts and was on and off the practice squad for the first half of the season before getting opportunities with the New York Jets and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Appearing in four total games with the Colts, Chiefs, and Jets, Shrader would make all five field goal attempts, and he was 9-for-9 on extra point attempts. Shrader's ability to bounce from team to team, adjust to a new snapper and a new holder, while remaining consistent, caught the attention of GM Chris Ballard.
"He leaves us and performs and performs at two different teams –you know how hard that is?" GM Chris Ballard said. "That's difficult now, to go to two different teams and have to perform – that is not easy. You're working with a totally different operation at both – different snapper and different holder – and to go in and be successful."
During Trujillo's most recent season at Temple, he was perfect on 21 extra point attempts and was 16-for-22 overall. This included going 5-for-5 from 40-49 yards and 5-of-8 from 50-plus, per PFF.
'We think (Trujillo is) very similar to what Spencer was last year,' special teams coordinator Brian Mason said via the Indy Star. 'Maybe, statistically, wasn't what you'd think you'd be looking for from a college standpoint, less than an 80% kicker. … But you can see a lot of guys — even Harrison Butker was less than 80% in college — if they have the talent and mental makeup, be able to take the next step.'
As Ballard mentioned after the addition of Trujillo, the Colts having two kickers on their offseason roster is not abnormal. In fact, having only one would be the oddity.
For the time being, this is Shrader's job, but that isn't set in stone either, as he will presumably still have to outperform Trujillo this summer. At a position where the Colts now find themselves quite inexperienced, competition is a very good thing to have.