Colts Sign Punter, Put Pressure On Matt Haack

The Indianapolis Colts announced on Tuesday that they have signed punter Nolan Cooney to the practice squad and released cornerback Ryan Smith from the practice squad.

Cooney's addition puts one player who is already on the Colts' roster on notice.

The team suffered an ugly loss last Sunday to the Tennessee Titans, but overshadowed by the Colts' blow to their postseason chances was the putrid performance of punter Matt Haack, who punted 5 times for an average of just 35.2 yards.

On the surface that doesn't look so bad if he was pinning Tennessee deep into their own territory, but none of those 5 kicks were downed inside their 20-yard line while one even went for a touchback. Simply put, it was a day of shanks for Haack that he'd probably like to forget.

According to Pro Football Focus, Haack was the NFL's second lowest-graded punter in Week 7 with a 51.1. The silver lining was that none of his punts were returned by the Titans. On the season, Haack ranks 31st in the NFL out of 32 qualifying punters with a grade of 60.5, so Week 7 wasn't just an outlier.

The Colts signed Haack after losing Rigoberto Sanchez to a season-ending Achilles injury during training camp, and while Haack started out hot, he has started to tail off.

Cooney (6'3", 202, 26 years old) was signed by the New Orleans Saints as an undrafted free agent out of Syracuse following the 2021 NFL Draft. He has also spent time with the Arizona Cardinals. In college, Cooney was an All-American as a senior in 2020, and for his career punted 74 times for an average of 44.8 yards, including 24 kicks downed inside the opponent's 20-yard line. He also handled kickoff duties.

The Colts may not be ready to pull the plug on Haack just yet, but adding Cooney to the practice squad certainly puts the incumbent on the hot seat.