Colts training camp puts kicker job front and center, with Blake Grupe defending and Spencer Shrader pushing

The Indianapolis Colts’ early training camp storyline is not at quarterback or wide receiver, at least not first. According to Yahoo Sports’ early preview of camp position battles, the most intriguing and most unsettled fight may be at kicker, where Blake Grupe is aiming to hold the starting job while Spencer Shrader tries to push his way ahead.

Grupe enters the conversation as the incumbent, the player occupying the kicking position on the depth chart and the one tasked with defending it through daily work. In a competition like this, the early practices tend to magnify margin calls, because the job is decided by consistency over time, not by a single strong session. Even without reading too much into any one day, training camp is where the coaching staff can separate who can repeat the same swing of timing, mechanics, and contact under changing conditions.

Shrader, described in the same preview as a promising young former starting kicker, represents the standard kind of camp challenge: a player with game experience and confidence, but also the urgency that comes with being the pursuer. In the kicker role, “holding off” a younger challenger tends to be less about talent and more about steadiness, especially on the kinds of attempts that show up across a season: standard-range kicks that must be made, longer attempts that require clean strike and trajectory, and the pressure moments where a miss can linger for an entire week of preparation.

The Colts’ camp priorities around kicking go beyond the scoreboard moment. A kicker has to fit a team’s approach to special teams operation, including how quickly the unit can get set, how the holder and snapper synchronize, and how the kicking plan adjusts to wind and field conditions. That is why these competitions can look “closest” even when the gap on paper is not enormous. The staff watches not only whether kicks go in, but also whether the process is repeatable when the snap, hold, or ball flight does not feel exactly like the best-case scenario.

For Indianapolis, the significance is practical. Kicking is a single-position contribution that can influence field position, scoring opportunities, and late-game decision-making. If the Colts end camp with Grupe firmly in control, it gives the offense and defense a stable platform from which to manage game plans. If Shrader presses the issue, it indicates that special teams might be an active area of team-building during the preseason, with the staff tailoring the unit’s comfort level and rhythm around whoever wins the job.

Still, an early preview is exactly what it is, a first look, and kicker competitions often tighten or loosen as camp progresses. Weather, practice-day routines, and how quickly each kicker and his holder settle into timing can shift the picture over weeks. The most important thing to watch next is not one make or one miss, but whether Grupe can demonstrate consistent form across a sequence of attempts, and whether Shrader can do the same long enough to force the coaching staff into a decision.