Colts Cut Kicker Matt Gay

INDIANAPOLIS – The Colts will have a new kicker this coming season in another sign of a different Chris Ballard building his roster.
Matt Gay, who received the highest free-agent contract for a kicker in NFL history two offseasons ago by the Colts, was released by that same general manager on Thursday afternoon.
Gay had not lived up to such a lucrative contract in his two seasons with the Colts, particularly struggling from north of 50 yards.
In two seasons with the Colts, Gay was 64-of-78 on field goals (68-of-69 on extra points). Of those 14 misses, 11 of them came on kicks longer than 50 yards. While 50-yard plus kicks are by no means a layup, NFL kickers in today’s league have a much higher success rate than what Gay has produced.
The cutting of Gay does save the Colts just under about $2.75 million of cap space, offering a little more room if/when the team chooses to make additional moves this offseason.
More than that though, the cutting of Gay in April is a tad odd.
Sure, Gay has definitely underperformed the $22.5 million (over 4 years) deal he signed back in ’23. There’s no denying that.
But the move to cut ties with the veteran kicker doesn’t mean the Colts have a clear replacement, or one that you’d consider an unquestioned upgrade.
A few weeks back, the Colts brought back 2024 undrafted free agent Spencer Shrader. And while Shrader had a nice rookie campaign—going 5-of-5 on field goals and 9-of-9 on extra points in kicking for 3 different teams (Colts, Jets, Chiefs)—it would be naïve to act like he has earned a precious placekicking job.
Shrader has yet to even attempt an NFL field goal from longer than 45 yards.
That brings up the discussion of how the Colts will now handle the kicker position the rest of the offseason.
Would the Colts (gulp) draft a kicker to create competition for Shrader?
Since Gay was drafted in Round 5 of the 2019 Draft, the NFL has seen a total of 12 kickers chosen in the draft since. And Gay’s 85.5 field goal percentage is the 2nd best of those 12 kickers. And he was just cut.
At the very least, an additional leg is needed, whether that comes from a veteran on the open market or another dip into the undrafted pool, like they did with Shrader last year.
The timing of this move is interesting.
The Colts easily could have carried Gay and Shrader on the roster through the spring offseason program and had a bit of a kicking battle between the two. Cutting Gay after June 1 would have actually saved the Colts more than a $1 million in additional money.
Certainly, Gay has not lived up to the eye-popping contract given to him.
But the cap savings and future at kicker for the Colts isn’t in a position to where such a decision, especially on April 10, was a clear no brainer.
Asking Gay to restructure a contract that hasn’t met his production would have made sense. But that’s not happening here. Which also comes at a position where the Colts don’t have an obvious replacement they’ve instead in (like Tanor Bortolini getting 5 rookie starts as a 4th round pick for the departing and more expensive Ryan Kelly).
Two weeks from the 2025 NFL Draft, perhaps some additional answers at kicker will come as the Colts have clearly admitted a mistake in the signing of Gay.