SEATTLE — Blake Grupe has always had to prove himself.
He’s not the type of kicker who catches a coach’s eye.
Grupe is 5-7, 148 pounds, the smallest player in almost every locker room and the second smallest in Indianapolis Colts history (Titus Dixon was listed at 5-6, 152 for one game in 1989 but estimated to be 144 pounds). Grupe is small even for a kicker.
Small enough that he had no scholarship offers coming out of Smith-Cotton High School in Sedalia, Mo., that he had to walk on at Arkansas State, that only a few could see why he was recruited to Notre Dame after one of the most productive careers in the history of the Red Wolves.
Grupe made it to the NFL because a howitzer is attached to his slight frame, and more importantly because he possesses an innate sense of swagger and confidence that cannot be shaken.
“I think that’s kind of who he’s maybe had to be a little bit,” Indianapolis special teams coordinator Brian Mason said. “A lot of it has to do with his size, and people, maybe, thinking maybe he can’t make big kicks and do different things based on that. And all along the way, he’s just had a lot of swag and a lot of confidence in himself to kind of prove everybody wrong.”
When Indianapolis signed Grupe to replace Michael Badgley two weeks ago, the doubts had less to do with Grupe’s lack of size, more to do with his lack of success in New Orleans this season. Formerly considered the Saints’ kicker of the future, Grupe missed eight field goals in the first 11 games, convincing New Orleans it was time to cut bait after nearly three seasons.
He felt like the best bet the Colts could make in a bad situation.
But Mason is the coach who recruited Grupe to Notre Dame, one of the coaches who has always believed in him, and when he looked at the New Orleans tape, the coordinator saw something the Colts could change immediately.
Grupe’s help.
“Not to get into too many specifics, because you don’t want to discuss things with other teams, but we saw some things maybe that we thought, ‘Hey, he could benefit from being with Luke (Rhodes) and Rigo (Sanchez),” Mason said. “That would give him a little bit more of a steady situation. The operation we knew would be clean, and something that he could feel comfortable and confident with.”
The results through the first two games have been surprising.
Grupe has made all five field goals and both extra points, and on Sunday he was the Colts’ best offensive weapon, blasting field goals through the uprights from 54 yards and then from 60 in the final minute that gave Indianapolis a 16-15 lead.
The longest kick of Grupe’s career, the longest kick in the history of Seattle’s Lumen Field and the longest kick in franchise history.
“First time I’ve gotten to think about everything, but we knew what our yard-line was, we hit that kick in pregame, we practiced throughout the week,” Grupe said in Seattle. “Everything we do is for those types of moments right there. … Felt pretty special, to be real honest.”
That’s the way Grupe has always responded to adversity, one of the big reasons Mason wanted to reunite with his former kicker in the first place.
“He’s certainly somebody that guys rally around,” Mason said. “He’s definitely a really good locker room guy. He was voted a captain by the Saints this past year. So obviously, he’s somebody that has the ability to lead in the locker room, has a big personality.”
Everything snowballed on Grupe in New Orleans.
But Mason knew Grupe had the swagger to bounce back, the confidence to trot onto the field after Philip Rivers audibled to a run and hit the kind of swing a kicker’s never supposed to hit under the noise of Lumen Field, tipping over the 110-decibel mark if Seattle’s audiometer is accurate.
“The line don’t really matter to me,” Grupe said. “It’s as far as they need. I had just enough on it. Definitely didn’t need to go out there and kill it or anything, it was just enough for where our line was.”
Grupe’s moment was marred only by the kickoff that came next.
Clinging to a 16-15 lead, Indianapolis need to pin Seattle deep with 47 seconds left.
Under the NFL’s new kickoff rules, the traditional “squib” kick — the kind that hits the ground early and rolls, running clock with a reduced chance of a big return — is difficult to execute. The ball has to hit inside the 20-yard line, unlike the worm-burners of old, and by Mason’s estimation, only three kickers in the league have mastered that approach enough to hit it every time.
Grupe instead tried to pin Seahawks return man Rashid Shaheed directionally.
“We were trying to get it out deep right,” Grupe said. “With everything going on there, I’m not exactly sure where it landed. I know I got it out there, maybe a little shorter than I really wanted to, but with everything going on, just tried to get a ball out there, go down and give our guys a chance to cover.”
The kick only made it to the 9-yard line, low and a little too easy for Shaheed to field at a full sprint.
“Certainly, our objective every time that we kick the ball off is to generate a tackle at or in front of the 30-yard line,” Mason said. “The kick and coverage have to work together. We ended up kicking the ball a little bit shorter than what we would have wanted to happen there, which puts the returner onto the coverage a little bit sooner. We needed a trigger to keep contain, and we certainly had an opportunity to make that tackle inside the 30.”
Shaheed made it to the 37-yard line, allowing Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold to get into field goal range with a pair of quick completions to Shaheed. On a day when Grupe looked like he’d be the hero, Seahawks kicker Jason Myers instead took the mantle, matching Grupe’s 60-yarder of his own with the eventual game-winner, a blast of a kick from 56 yards.
A blemish on a big day.
But two games into his time in Indianapolis, Grupe looks like the kind of kicker that’s supposed to be unavailable in December.
“Very proud of him,” Mason said. “Really tough environment, was extremely loud. They take a timeout, and he’s standing out there at midfield and that place was an incredibly loud – really difficult, tough moment.”
A moment made a little easier when a kicker can trust the guys getting him the ball.
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.