Colts 2015 Player Preview: Kicker Adam Vinatieri

The kicking game has been in the news quite a bit in the last 24 hours, so it's fitting that our player-by-player look at the Colts' 90-man roster continues today with Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri.

The oldest player in the league, the 42-year old kicker is entering his 20th season, but he doesn't show any signs of letting up.  In 2014, Vinatieri hit on 30 of his 31 regular season field goal attempts (though going 5-of-7 in the postseason), with the only miss coming in the third quarter of the regular season finale.  His 96.8% success rate on field goals was the highest in the NFL since 2003, when the Colts' Mike Vanderjagt had a perfect season.  And even in 2013, Vinatieri hit on 35-of-40 field goals, meaning that over the last two years (at 40 and 41 years of age), Vinatieri has connected on 65-of-71 field goal tries, converting 91.5% of his attempts.  Furthermore, he has not missed an extra point since 2009, hitting 211 extra points in a row (including playoffs), and dating back to the middle of the 2007 season he has hit 300 of his last 301 extra point attempts (including the postseason).  All of this is an attempt to say one simple thing: Adam Vinatieri is a very good kicker and one of the best in the league.

The NFL has changed things up a bit for the 2015 season so that extra points will now be kicked from the 15-yard line, making it a 33-yard attempt, so Vinatieri will have an added degree of difficulty to something that was incredibly routine before.  A 33-yard kick is still pretty routine, but it's at least more difficult now.  As punter Pat McAfee noted, the rule changes will emphasis good kickers even more, and Adam Vinatieri absolutely fits into that category.

Vinatieri's career will land him a spot in Canton one day, but first he's still continuing his career as he enters his 20th season and his tenth with the Colts - meaning that after the 2015 season is over, he will have spent just as much time with the Colts as he did with the Patriots to start his career.  He has had some of the finest seasons of his career recently with the Colts, and his 2014 campaign was quite possibly the best of all of them.  He's looking to follow that up with the same level of play in 2015, and there are absolutely no concerns with the kicker nor doubts about his spot on the roster.  Adam Vinatieri is an absolute lock to make the roster and should again enjoy a good season for the Colts this year.