The Indianapolis Colts announced a minor roster move tonight, waiving kicker Taylor Pontius.
Pontius was signed by the Colts a few weeks ago as an undrafted free agent out of North Alabama, where he made 11-of-14 field goals in 2014 (including a school record 54-yarder) and also hit on 46-of-48 extra points. He was named the first-team All-Gulf South Conference kicker and also received two Gulf South Conference Special Teams Player of the Week honors as well throughout the 2014 season. In his two year career at North Alabama, Pontius made 16-of-20 field goal attempts and 57-of-59 extra point attempts. He also saw action punting and kicking off.
With Adam Vinatieri at kicker and Pat McAfee at punter, the Colts have the league's best kicking tandem and there is no doubt that the two are firmly entrenched in their spots. For Pontius, therefore, the only chance he had of making the final 53-man roster was in the case of an injury - which wouldn't have been good news at all for the Colts. Rather, Pontius was expected to be the camp leg to take some of the work away from Vinatieri and, hopefully, impress another team like Cody Parkey did last year.
That won't happen, at least with the Colts, however, as they waived Pontius today. It's a minor roster move and it opens up a spot on the 90-man offseason roster, which could be filled sooner rather than later with mini-camp going on this week. It's likely that the Colts will add another kicker to the roster before training camp to serve as a camp leg for Adam Vinatieri, but it won't be Taylor Pontius filling that role anymore.