Insider: Can Jake Verity beat out Rodrigo Blankenship for Colts kicking job?
Joel A. Erickson
Indianapolis Star
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WESTFIELD — Jake Verity sat on his couch on the final day of the draft last April, waiting for the phone to ring.
Verity didn’t expect to be drafted, but no team called to sign him as an undrafted free agent. Nobody called with an offer to try out at the team’s rookie minicamp.
Two weeks passed. Verity wondered if he’d get an NFL chance.
Then a team called. The right team.
When Verity picked up the phone, Baltimore Ravens kicking coach Randy Brown was on the other end of the line, offering the former East Carolina kicker a chance to try out.
“I mean, at that point, whatever comes, I’ll take it,” Verity said. “I had a pretty good day, and I was excited just to get into the NFL, just to get a shot.”
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Verity signed with the Ravens after the tryout, knowing full well that he had little shot at landing a spot on the 53-man roster as a rookie. Baltimore’s kicker, Justin Tucker, is the best leg in the NFL, a legend making his case to be considered one of the greatest of all time.
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“I knew it was going to be a stepping stone,” Verity said. “But I learned a ton.”
Outside of being handed a starting job, few places are better for a rookie kicker than the team with, arguably, the least chance in the league of earning a roster spot. Baltimore is one of the only franchises in the NFL with a dedicated kicking coach in Brown, plus the opportunity to learn from Tucker and a long history of developing NFL kickers who earn starting jobs in other cities. Robbie Gould, Graham Gano, Steven Hauschka and Wil Lutz all began their careers in Baltimore before landing a starting job somewhere else.
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Verity quickly understood why the Ravens have been so good at producing NFL kickers.
“(Brown) is a very conversational coach, as far as your technique, and he understands that everybody’s going to be a little bit different,” Verity said. “Working with Justin, who’s arguably the best ever, they work together so well, and you learn so much. It’s easy.”
Verity’s built a lot like Tucker, tall and lean, with a remarkably powerful leg.
“I would say I was a little bit of a late bloomer coming out of high school and college, but I got in the weight room a little bit, put on 20 or 30 pounds, and my leg got stronger,” Verity said. “Since then, I think that’s been one of my strong suits.”
Verity improved quickly.
So quickly that he earned the admiration of his legendary teammate, a kicker who would blast an NFL-record 66-yard field goal to beat the Lions in October.
“I’ll just say it,” Tucker told the Baltimore Sun last August. “I’ll be shocked if he’s not on somebody’s 53-man roster to start the season.”
Verity made 4 of 5 kicks in the preseason, including a 53-yarder that convinced Tucker his prediction would come true. A few teams called Verity’s agent, and at times it felt like an offer was close, but nothing ever materialized.
Baltimore still liked Verity enough to sign him to the practice squad, giving him a chance to keep developing, although he suffered a quadriceps injury in October that he had to spend a significant amount of time rehabilitating.
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“It was my only opportunity at the time,” Verity said. “But I was hoping it would lead to something like being able to come here.”
Baltimore released Verity after the season, and Indianapolis tried him out in February, signing the young kicker after he impressed the Colts with his leg strength.
“He’s got a cannon,” general manager Chris Ballard said.
Indianapolis had plenty of chances to bring in another kicker this offseason but ultimately passed, deciding to give Verity a chance to compete with incumbent Rodrigo Blankenship, who is coming off a struggle of a season marred by injury and ineffectiveness from long range.
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Kicking from distance is one of Verity’s specialties.
“On a day like this, with this wind at my back, I think I can hit from 70,” Verity said. “No wind, on a gray day, I’d say about 65, 66 indoors.”
Distance has been a problem for the Colts, who have made just 1 of 5 field goals from beyond 50 yards the past two seasons. Blankenship is 1 of 4 from beyond 50 and 3 of 8 from beyond 46 yards, one of the NFL’s worst marks over that span.
“We’re just looking for consistency, production,” Colts head coach Frank Reich said. “Like we said, Rod has been our guy. We’re really happy with the way Rod’s continued to develop. Jake looks good. We’ll just continue to kind of compete through training camp. … It’ll work itself out.”
Verity knows he’s at something of a disadvantage, given Blankenship’s history in the organization, and the second-year kicker went out of his way to say how much he respects the Colts’ incumbent.
But he’s in Indianapolis to make good on Tucker’s prediction.
“I’m confident,” Verity said. “And I’m here to win.”
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