Colts, kicker Matt Gay agree to a four-year contract

Gay is signing a four-year, $22.5M deal, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets. 

Considering the Colts’ kicker path since Adam Vinatieri‘s final season, paying up for a proven specialist makes sense. Gay, who spent the past three years with the Rams, is a Pro Bowl kicker who has made at least 93% of his field goal tries in each of the past two seasons.

Gay’s contract tops any accord ever given to a kicker in free agency, though Justin Tucker‘s latest Ravens re-up still leads the field overall. But Gay’s $5.62M-per-year average checks in as the position’s second-highest figure. 

The soon-to-be 29-year-old specialist eclipses Jason Myers‘ recent Seahawks extension for second place behind Tucker.

Over the past two seasons, Gay has made 60-of-64 field goal attempts. Last season, Gay went 7-of-9 from beyond 50 yards. 

Although Los Angeles does not present one of the tougher kicker environments, Gay going from an outdoor venue to Lucas Oil Stadium should not exactly provide a higher hurdle for him. He will be expected to stop the Colts’ kicker carousel, one Vinatieri’s 2019 struggles and retirement started.

Vinatieri’s injury-induced retirement ended a 13-plus-season run in Indianapolis for the league’s all-time scoring leader. The Colts brought in Chase McLaughlin to finish out the season but added Rodrigo Blankenship as a UDFA the following year. 

A Blankenship 2021 injury, however, threw off Indy’s blueprint again. Michael Badgley kicked in the final 12 Colts games in 2021, and McLaughlin replaced Blankenship on the roster — after illegal procedure penalties and a missed field goal led to a tie in Houston.

After beginning his career on a Buccaneers kicking merry-go-round, Gay will be tasked with finishing this weird kicker period for the Colts.