Brian Mason - Special Teams Coordinator, colts Event: Media Availability | Date: 2026-09-08 | Full transcript (primary source).
On September 8, 2026, Brian Mason, Special Teams Coordinator for the Colts, addressed the media in a press conference following the team's preparations for the upcoming NFL season. Mason discussed the performance and progress of starting kicker Spencer Schrader, highlighting his resilience and improvement throughout training camp and the preseason.
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Transcript
Mason: All right, hope everybody's doing well. Had a good Labor Day weekend. I'll kick it off. Just talk about some things that I'm sure will come up a little bit. So I will be on the sideline again, starting here week one and for the rest of the regular season. Obviously starting kicker, Spencer Schrader. We haven't talked or gotten together since the last preseason game. Obviously we talked a lot about that leading up into that preseason game. He had another really good preseason game, making from 60 and having two really good kicks from 60 plus hitting all of his kicks in preseason games. You know, it's been talked about a lot. I think it shows really good like mental, physical preparation by him to overcome, you know, two rocky weeks to start training camp, to be able to continue to make progress, you know, each of the last three weeks of training camp, kick at a really high level, I thought, in joint practice to finish things out, to kick at a really high level in preseason games. He's obviously somebody that has a special late talent, but I think also, you know, his ability to persevere and overcome adversity and come back from a really big injury that I think was more difficult than he even anticipated, really shows, you know, how mentally strong he is and how he's able to, you know, really do a great job with his preparation and work ethic to come out even better. And I think he will be better than he's ever been. That's not to say that things will be perfect, but I think in the long run, he's going to be a really good starting kicker for us and really talented because he, you know, obviously has really good physical talent, but has only gotten more mentally stronger. You know, I think people have kind of talked to him about, I was surprised when I called to tell him that he was going to be the starter, that he didn't even really hear like a lot of excitement from him. I think he's done a nice job, you know, good and bad of being able to like emotionally stay pretty regulated, not get too high, not get too low, which is really going to help him, you know, being a kicker can be a mentally straining position that I think he's going to be really mentally tough to be able to handle a lot of different things as he's handled a lot of things and come out the other side. You know, that being said, it was also like the hardest conversation in my coaching career, you know, having to talk to Blake Group because we had two kickers that were both deserving to be starting kickers. Unique situation where I either coached or recruited both Blake and Spencer in college at the University of Notre Dame, so have very good and close relationships with them and their families. So obviously it was a difficult decision in conversation and Blake did an unbelievable job here for us. He made every single kick last season. You know, we wish him nothing but the best and we'll always be a big fan of his now that he's with the New York Jets. Returner-wise, we've talked a lot about who's probably going to be the kickoff returners in this first game. We haven't talked a lot about punt returner, which I'm sure maybe will come up. We're not really going to dive into or announce the starting punt returner in this meeting. We have several guys on our active roster who I think could be good starting punt returners for us. We have several guys on our practice squad who I think could be good starting punt returners for us. We'll obviously make a decision as the week goes. If we were to elevate somebody to be a starting punt returner, that somebody would then also be in the kickoff returner mix and conversation so that we make sure we're getting more reps out of somebody that is elevated if that's the direction we go. But I think we do have really good options both on our active roster and our practice squad that we'll kind of work through as we go through this week.
Reporter: Brian, what do you think the challenges are in just whatever fielding punt returns versus fielding kick returns? Because it's not always the same person necessarily that you see teams operate in both roles.
Mason: Yeah, traditionally, fielding a kickoff is a lot easier than fielding a punt. They're easier to judge. It's easier to catch a ball that is spinning end over end than a punt that is going like a spiral where you have to read the nose of the ball. There's a lot higher hang time on an average punt. So it's a little bit more challenging to both read the punt, catch the punt that has a higher hang time. And typically in a punt play, you're gonna have more traffic or people in your face. So it becomes a little bit more of a pressure situation of catching that ball. Whereas traditionally when you're catching a kickoff, people are gonna be 20 plus yards away and it's an easier ball to be able to judge and catch. And the new kickoff model, that can be a little bit different because you're seeing more what people call like dirty balls or dirty kicks where people are hitting trick kicks and line drives and some of that stuff becomes a little bit more challenging to be able to judge as well. And you need somebody back there that can make good decisions for it. But also I think in the new kickoff model we've kind of discussed, it becomes a little bit of a rugby scrum play and you're seeing it's not all one way or another. You are seeing maybe some smaller punt returners that are having success in some situations, but a lot of I think the guys that are having the most success and that is a general statement. But a lot of guys that are having success in this new model are bigger runners, running backs. Ashton Doolin has size and speed to be able to run through a rugby scrum and break tackles are guys that are seeing that fit. The new kickoff model may be better than some of the smaller punt returner types that you have somebody that has a punt returner that's more of that slot receiver or nickel back. Traditionally who can make somebody miss and has really good quickness and short area would be some of the big picture differences.
Reporter: Hey coach, I think it's actually Rigo's birthday today but I don't know if we've had a chance to talk to you since this season. And so Joel always calls him a witch, but what is your take on what he's able to do and what makes him one of the best in the league?
Mason: Yeah, happy 32nd birthday to Rigo. And obviously huge news that we're able to get him a new contract extension. I think Shane had hit on this too when you guys had asked him. I think the best word to describe Rigo is consistency. So you can always just count on somebody that's gonna be consistent and reliable and everything that he's asked to do, whether that is punting or holding or if you needed him to be a kickoff specialist, he's been really good at that in his career. He's had unbelievable longevity in year 10 with the Indianapolis Colts and the two best seasons that he's probably ever had are the last two seasons. So you're looking at in 24, he set the franchise record for punt average. In 25, he sets the franchise record for net punt, which I think is the best statistic in all of special teams, because the punt play and the punt team is your most important unit and the unit that can really change the game and change field position in net punt or net statistics show overall, is he punting the ball where he needs to with the correct hanging time to help out the coverage to prevent return yards? Sometimes punt average or how far you just straight punt the ball isn't necessarily the best thing because you don't want to out kick your coverage. And what Rigo has done an unbelievable job of, he has an unbelievable job of his location and placement, which in the NFL, there's really two ways that you need to be able to control the punt returner. You either need really good placement where you're kicking that ball near the sideline and you can shrink the field and not give an athletic returner a bunch of space, or you need to kick the ball with just insane hang time that it doesn't matter where you punted the ball to. Rigo has really good hang times, but he has excellent placement and location. And the guys that are really good directional punters, like you look like Adam Moorhead, who's punted for a really long time, are able to punt for an even longer period of time. Rigo has great leg strength, but what's going to allow him to punt for a really long time is his consistency and placement.
Reporter: Yeah, Mays. I'm curious, with Spencer, he's still like in rehab mode and we're talking 11 months from this injury. So is he still balancing maintenance with game preparation or not?
Mason: So he's not in the typical rehab mode like he was most of last year. I think what you'll find with a lot of the specialists, especially kickers, is they are constantly in the training room or the facility and taking care of their bodies. It's an off day, but Spencer was in here today. So kickers have a very specific routine about massages and dry needling and the cold tub and the hot tub and the sauna and doing extra specific stretching and lifting or yoga. There's a long list of things that they're doing. They have a weekly checklist that they're gonna hit on the different days to make sure that they're maintaining their leg to the highest ability they possibly can. And they have to put in a ton of work to be able to do that. So he's definitely in this mode of taking care of his body, but it's not like the rehab from coming through reconstructive surgery. It's more so just the unbelievable job that the kickers do to keep their maintenance up throughout the year. So from a kicking standpoint, he's as close to 100% as you can get.
Reporter: Correct. Good, thank you. There were like some mechanical things because he didn't kick with a live operation for 10 months. There were mechanical things at the beginning of training camp that needed to be adjusted, that were off slightly that I think we've all kind of talked about and looked at, that he made really good improvement on. And now it's just about maintaining his ability to stay as close to 100% as possible through basic maintenance.
Reporter: The wide left thing he had, did he was mechanic size him?
Mason: Yes.
Reporter: Okay, cool, thanks. We'll go with Joel and then Nathan will be our last question.
Mason: Yeah, Kep, we actually had him on a top 30 visit. So we looked at him and evaluated him in the draft process. When we was really impressed with him, interesting background, but he ended up finishing his career at Ole Miss, was a really good special teams player in college. I thought he did a good job in special teams and preseason, certainly somebody that could have value for us now and moving forward. I think he's just somebody that, when you look at some of those attributes we've talked about what makes a good special teams player, they play with passion, relentless effort, they're tough. I think those fit all of the things that Kep has shown on film so far. So we're definitely excited to have him.
Reporter: Hey Brian, I just wanted to clarify. I know you said that as you guys are still evaluating who that starter at punt returner will be, that person very well could be on the kickoff team. So that entire kickoff return group may not be settled. Is Ashton Doolan, regardless of who you guys will have at punt return, going to be one of those two guys that you have on kickoff?
Mason: Yeah, certainly, depending on his offensive use, we're going to try to use Ashton Doolan as much as possible because as we've discussed, he's one of the best special teams players in the NFL and one of the best returners in the NFL.
Reporter: Cool. Thanks, Brian. That'll do it, Mace. Thanks for your time.
Mason: Thanks, appreciate it.