Source: Colts are waiving kicker Rodrigo Blankenship

INDIANAPOLIS — The Colts have made their decision.

Indianapolis is waiving kicker Rodrigo Blankenship, a source confirmed to IndyStar, after the third-year kicker missed a game-winning, 42-yard attempt on Sunday and sent two kickoffs out of bounds in crunch time, costing the Colts precious field position. The NFL Network first reported the move.

The Colts signed Chase McLaughlin and Lucas Havrisik to the practice squad to compete for the right to replace him.

Blankenship, who had beaten out Jake Verity to open the season with the starting job for the third consecutive year, opened his Colts career with a promising rookie year, then suffered a hip injury and missed three kicks against Baltimore last season, prompting Indianapolis to leave Blankenship on injured reserve even after he got healthy.

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Colts head coach Frank Reich indicated a move might be coming on Monday, stopping short of saying he still had unshakable confidence in Blankenship.

“If you play long enough, you’re going to have a bad day, or bad days. Your confidence is going to waver. It’s how you respond to that, and it’s everybody, there’s no exception,” Reich said. “Obviously, as we evaluate that and how we feel about it, you consider all those things, and then it’s a question of hey, guy had a bad day, can he bounce back? Do we have the patience for a guy to bounce back? Those are the things you think through and talk through.”

Reich and general manager Chris Ballard met twice Monday.

The Colts brought in seven kickers to try out on Tuesday — former Colts replacements Michael Badgley and Chase McLaughlin, former Jaguars kickers Josh Lambo and Matthew Wright, former Saints fill-in Brian Johnson, undrafted rookie Lucas Havrisik and USFL kicker Austin Jones — and Blankenship is now being waived.

The Colts liked Blankenship enough to give him multiple chances over three seasons.

“Rod has been pretty consistent to this point,” special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone said. “He didn’t have a great performance, obviously, in the game. He mishit two balls on kickoffs, and then the miss at the end of the game. I think Rod is a good kicker.”

But consistency became an issue at the end of Blankenship’s rookie season.

Blankenship made 30 of his first 33 kicks in the NFL, but he missed two field goals in the finale of his rookie season, then missed a critical 33-yard attempt in the playoffs against Buffalo. Brought back because of the promise he’d shown as a rookie, Blankenship injured his hip against Baltimore, missed three kicks against the Ravens and went on injured reserve.

Indianapolis stuck with Badgley even after Blankenship returned, an indication the team had questions about the young kicker. Blankenship always struggled from distance, making just 3 of 8 attempts from 46 yards or more in three seasons.

The consistency inside the 45 faltered.

Beginning with that season finale, Blankenship made 16 of 23 field goals, or 69.5 percent, the last miss coming on that 42-yard attempt with a win on the line against Houston this weekend.

“It didn’t feel great coming off my foot,” Blankenship said. “I just didn’t make contact how I wanted to. I didn’t really hit the ball square and had kind of a lazy follow-through.”

Blankenship’s two botched kickoffs also played a factor, an afterthought that became a real consideration when punter and kickoff specialist Rigoberto Sanchez tore his Achilles tendon during training camp.

Matt Haack, the punter the Colts signed to fill in for Sanchez, is not a kickoff specialist, and Indianapolis needs consistency in the kickoff game.

“It’s a luxury to have a punter who kicks off and kicks off as well as Rigo,” Ventrone said. “Back to Rod and his development on kickoffs, he has done a pretty good job. … We’ve done a good job of getting his kickoffs to a level where we were comfortable playing him in a game like that.”

But Blankenship faltered in both responsibilities when the Colts needed it most on Sunday, and the team decided to make a move.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts are waiving kicker Rodrigo Blankenship according to a source