Who Should I Start? Michael Badgley or Spencer Shrader

Tuesday, March 4, 3:15 PM

The Detroit Lions recently cleared veteran kicker Michael Badgley (groin) from the torn groin that kept him out for all of last season, a source tells NFL Network's Tom Pelissero. While Badgley has made a full recovery, he's now set to become a free agent next week. With the 29-year-old out of commission all year, Jake Bates served as Detroit's regular kicker and was very reliable, missing only three of his 29 field-goal attempts in 17 regular-season games while missing three of his 67 extra-point attempts in his first year in the league. Because of how good Bates looked in 2024, it's likely that the Lions will let Badgley walk in free agency as he heads into his eighth year in the NFL. Badgley has a career 82.4 percent success rate on 119 field-goal attempts in 64 games played. In four games with Detroit in 2023, he made all four of his FGs and went 13-for-15 on extra points.

Tuesday, May 6, 3:51 PM

According to James Boyd of The Athletic, Spencer Shrader is the favorite to win the team's starting placekicking duties for 2025. Last season, Shrader kicked for the Colts in Week 1 due to an injury to Matt Gay. The Colts released Gay this offseason and brought Shrader back. He will compete with undrafted free-agent kicker Maddux Trujillo out of Temple, but it is "his job to lose." Shrader went undrafted last offseason out of Notre Dame and kicked in one game for the Colts, one game for the New York Jets, and two games for the Kansas City Chiefs. Overall, he made all five of his field goal attempts and was a perfect nine-for-nine on extra point tries. Gay attempted the seventh-most field goals last season for Indy, so Shrader could find his way on the fantasy football radar in 2025.