November 22, 2019 9:38 AM EET
The Colts have faith in Adam Vinatieri
Clayton Geathers Jersey , who is committed to working on getting “the demons out.”But what happens if he doesn’t?When the Colts decided to work out kickers is unknown, but they had six of them in town for tryouts Tuesday. Indianapolis has began working on a backup plan it hopes not to use.The Colts worked out Elliott Fry, Cole Hedlund, Greg Joseph, Younghoe Koo, Chase McLaughlin and Cody Parkey, Howard Balzer reports. They also reported tryouts with offensive tackles Gerhard deBeer, Christian DiLauro and Brandon Hitner as well as center James Murray.Viantieri said Tuesday the possibility of retirement never crossed his mind after his seventh missed kick the past three games, including five misses this season. Speculation surfaced about his future when he offered a cryptic response in a brief postgame comment to a reporter.“No [on retiring],” Vinatieri said
Nate Hairston Color Rush Jersey , via Mike Wells of ESPN. “That was one those situations that I was walking out of the locker room. Quite frankly, for two decades, we’ve always had open locker rooms on a Monday, and granted our schedule has changed as of last year. When I walked out saying I’ll talk to you guys on Monday, I just needed a little bit more time. Like I said, none of us should assume stuff.”Owner Jim Irsay admitted “concern” about his kicker, but coach Frank Reich again gave Vinatieri a vote of confidence this week.Without Andrew Luck, the Colts can’t afford many more misses from Vinatieri. He knows that. Reich knows that. Everyone knows that.The Colts now have an idea how the free agent market looks at the position in case they need to “break glass in case of emergency.”The pressure is on the NFL’s all-time leading scorer, but Vinatieri has handled pressure with aplomb his entire career. The NFL might allow some of its young players to get experience by playing in the Alliance of American Football.Bill Polian, the Hall of Fame general manager and AAF executive
https://www.coltsfanshop.com/Braden-Smith-Jersey , says he and some NFL colleagues have talked informally about whether certain young players could play in the AAF during the NFL offseason.“The talk is ramping up – I’ll say that,” Polian told .It could make sense for the NFL to assign some players who haven’t had much playing time to the AAF to help them gain additional experience. Young quarterbacks in particular might be able to improve with AAF playing time — and for those who don’t improve, it at least alerts their NFL teams not to count on them in the fall.It’s unclear whether the NFL Players Association would approve of such an idea. When the current Collective Bargaining Agreement was negotiated, the players got a reduced offseason workload. The union might not agree to allow players to spend three months in the AAF during the offseason. Then again, those players would be collecting an additional salary from the AAF, which the union might view as worth it.“Those discussions will continue but whether they bear fruit remains to be seen,” Polian said. “There are lots of procedural hurdles that have to be crossed before you could make that happen.”The AAF has been careful to make clear that it is not competing with the NFL and actually wants to solidify its relationship with the NFL. Next year, that might even include some NFL backups on the field in the AAF.
The Colts have faith in Adam Vinatieri Clayton Geathers Jersey , who is committed to working on getting “the demons out.”But what happens if he doesn’t?When the Colts decided to work out kickers is unknown, but they had six of them in town for tryouts Tuesday. Indianapolis has began working on a backup plan it hopes not to use.The Colts worked out Elliott Fry, Cole Hedlund, Greg Joseph, Younghoe Koo, Chase McLaughlin and Cody Parkey, Howard Balzer reports. They also reported tryouts with offensive tackles Gerhard deBeer, Christian DiLauro and Brandon Hitner as well as center James Murray.Viantieri said Tuesday the possibility of retirement never crossed his mind after his seventh missed kick the past three games, including five misses this season. Speculation surfaced about his future when he offered a cryptic response in a brief postgame comment to a reporter.“No [on retiring],” Vinatieri said Nate Hairston Color Rush Jersey , via Mike Wells of ESPN. “That was one those situations that I was walking out of the locker room. Quite frankly, for two decades, we’ve always had open locker rooms on a Monday, and granted our schedule has changed as of last year. When I walked out saying I’ll talk to you guys on Monday, I just needed a little bit more time. Like I said, none of us should assume stuff.”Owner Jim Irsay admitted “concern” about his kicker, but coach Frank Reich again gave Vinatieri a vote of confidence this week.Without Andrew Luck, the Colts can’t afford many more misses from Vinatieri. He knows that. Reich knows that. Everyone knows that.The Colts now have an idea how the free agent market looks at the position in case they need to “break glass in case of emergency.”The pressure is on the NFL’s all-time leading scorer, but Vinatieri has handled pressure with aplomb his entire career. The NFL might allow some of its young players to get experience by playing in the Alliance of American Football.Bill Polian, the Hall of Fame general manager and AAF executive https://www.coltsfanshop.com/Braden-Smith-Jersey , says he and some NFL colleagues have talked informally about whether certain young players could play in the AAF during the NFL offseason.“The talk is ramping up – I’ll say that,” Polian told .It could make sense for the NFL to assign some players who haven’t had much playing time to the AAF to help them gain additional experience. Young quarterbacks in particular might be able to improve with AAF playing time — and for those who don’t improve, it at least alerts their NFL teams not to count on them in the fall.It’s unclear whether the NFL Players Association would approve of such an idea. When the current Collective Bargaining Agreement was negotiated, the players got a reduced offseason workload. The union might not agree to allow players to spend three months in the AAF during the offseason. Then again, those players would be collecting an additional salary from the AAF, which the union might view as worth it.“Those discussions will continue but whether they bear fruit remains to be seen,” Polian said. “There are lots of procedural hurdles that have to be crossed before you could make that happen.”The AAF has been careful to make clear that it is not competing with the NFL and actually wants to solidify its relationship with the NFL. Next year, that might even include some NFL backups on the field in the AAF.