The Indianapolis Colts have been dealing with kicking issues throughout the 2019 season with veteran Adam Vinatieri enduring both inconsistency and injuries.
In his 24th season, the most decorated kicker in the history of the league appears to have finally met his match with Father Time. Despite a career of consistency and production, Vinatieri’s 2019 season will forever be looked upon as an outlier.
Dealing with a knee injury that will almost certainly keep him out of the Week 14 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, there is a chance this is last we have seen from the 46-year-old.
Vinatieri was asked by media members on Thursday whether he thought he would play again this season. Though he doesn’t have all of the information to give a definitive answer, it was less than encouraging.
“I don’t have an answer,” Vinatieri told reporters. “I don’t know. We’ll see how it feels tomorrow and the next day and the next day.”
Vinatieri did say he had a meeting scheduled with general manager Chris Ballard and the medical staff on Thursday afternoon, which will likely determine whether he plays again this season or goes on the injured reserve list.
It hasn’t been a fun season for Vinatieri, to say the least. His struggles have been well documented as his worst season by far. There was even a point in which a mid-season retirement was a real possibility following another disastrous performance against the Tennessee Titans in Week 2.
Vinatieri has missed 14 combined kicks this season. That includes eight missed field-goal attempts, tied for the most in his career. In addition, Vinatieri has missed six extra-point attempts, which is the most in his career. Before 2019, he hadn’t missed more than three extra-point attempts in any season.
Vinatieri’s struggles have cost the Colts games. There is no way around it. They’ve even held tryouts for kickers on two separate occasions this season.
The Colts aren’t going to cut Vinatieri—not when their season is all but lost and his career is likely over after this campaign. They aren’t going to have the greatest kicker of all-time end his career on a note like that.
But if Vinatieri’s knee injury is significant enough to keep him off of the field for the next month, this is likely the last we have seen from the NFL’s leading scorer.