Former Notre Dame kicker Spencer Shrader has spent a great deal of his football career moving around, but it appears he's finally found a home in the NFL.
Shrader, who played for three different teams in his rookie season, has been impressing onlookers this preseason so much that it appears he's won the starting kicker job with the Indianapolis Colts. The latest sign of this was when Shrader went 4-for-4 on field goals with a long of 56 yards in Saturday's preseason game vs. Green Bay. The former Irish star also made his only extra point attempt.
Ex-Notre Dame kicker Spencer Shrader appears set with the Indianapolis Colts
Even more interesting for the ex-Notre Dame kicker was that he took all the kicks on Saturday. That is an excellent sign that he's won the starting job as the competition is over.
While the plan is still for Maddux Trujillo to get all kicking opportunities in the final preseason game, Shrader has been seen as ahead in the kicking competition throughout training camp. Should that be the case, it would mean that he won a job after fighting for roster spots in his first season in the pros.
In 2024, Shrader kicked for the Colts, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the New York Jets. It wasn't that he didn't do what was asked of him, as he went 5-for-5 in field goals with a long of 45 yards while also hitting all 9 extra points. The situations there were more than those teams already had established veteran kickers.
Spencer Shrader started his college football career with South Florida, making just 28-of-41 field goals before transferring to Notre Dame ahead of the 2023 season. With the Fighting Irish, he hit just 15-of-22 field goals while hitting 61-of-62 extra point attempts.