Rodrigo Blankenship kicks down Cardinals' door of opportunity, stabilizes kicking game

On Friday, maybe Arizona Cardinals kicker Rodrigo Blankenship could finally exhale and relax, if only briefly.

The 25-year-old made two field goals, including a 50-yarder, and went 2 for 3 on extra points, to go with seven touchbacks on kickoffs in the Cardinals' 42-34 win over the New Orleans Saints Thursday night.

Blankenship, formerly the Indianapolis Colts' kicker, had a whirlwind of a week. He arrived in Arizona Monday night and was at Cardinals headquarters to sign with the team's practice squad Tuesday. He was activated prior to Thursday's game after what amounted to one actual practice and game situation walkthrough Wednesday in a short week, and on Thursday stabilized the Cardinals' kicking game, which had been an adventure without the injured Matt Prater.

"Obviously the last couple days, you know, kind of gone by very quickly," Blankenship said after Thursday's game. "I think my body is definitely still on East Coast time. So I haven't really been able to sleep past like 5 a.m.. But you know, I'm so thankful to have had the opportunity to be here and just hope that I can just continue to go out and perform as long as they'll have me."

Blankenship made 32 of 37 field goals with the Colts as an undrafted rookie in 2020, and went 11 of 14 before going on injured reserve last season. This season, the Colts released him after one game, and Blankenship was part of a Cardinals tryout group prior to Week 5 to replace the injured Matt Prater.

Matt Ammendola won that tryout but missed a potential game-tying field goal at home in a 20-17 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, then missed an extra point against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 6 in a game that saw the Cardinals go for it three times in field goal range rather than let Ammendola kick.

After the Seattle game, Ammendola was released. Blankenship, still based out of Indianapolis and forced to kick wherever he could find an available field in the area so he could stay on his weekly routine,  was brought back and signed, and will likely be kept around until Prater is cleared to kick again in a game.

The hope is that Prater feels better over the next few days, with the Cardinals getting the weekend off after playing Thursday. But that's not a sure thing at the moment.

"I mean, it's kind of what you sign up for. You take away the big collisions and the hard hits, and the flip side of that is you're expected to be able to perform at an incredibly high level all the time," Blankenship said. "I was saying to one of the other guys, you know, the bar just keeps getting raised year after year for the expectations for kickers in this league. And so, if you want to be a kicker, you just have to know that's what you're signing up for. You have to be able to deliver week in and week out if you want to be able to keep your job."

Quick outs

*Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury was asked about the optics of the heated exchange on national TV between he and quarterback Kyler Murray during the second quarter Thursday night, and if Murray was close to crossing a line with what he said.

Kingsbury said Friday afternoon he hadn't yet seen the footage of the discussion with Murray, after having gone to bed Thursday night before returning to the Cardinals facility to get ready for a team meeting. "It was an emotional game, incredible atmosphere, everybody's intense and rocking. And that's just part of the game," he said.

*Kingsbury confirmed that a players-only meeting was held last week, and from what he could hear from outside the where the meeting took place, it was "pretty intense."

Murray was asked to address the team first, and DeAndre Hopkins and Budda Baker, two team leaders, also spoke.

"He's the leader of this team. And as we all know, as he goes we go," Kingsbury said of Murray. "So I think that was a big step."

*Wide receiver A.J. Green was active Thursday but didn't play, and Kingsbury was asked about the veteran's role going forward. "We're going to work through that with all these pieces (at receiver). It's going to be a challenge for us to maximize who we have, you know, see what we can get out of the personnel groupings that we have. But we'll spend the next eight or nine days going through it and see what we come up with," Kingsbury said.

Get in touch with Jose Romero at Jose.Romero@gannett.com. Find him on Twitter at @RomeroJoseM. 

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Cardinals kicker Rodrigo Blankenship caps off wild week with success