If Sunday was his last time in the home locker room at the Caesars Superdome, Blake Grupe spent his final few moments literally packing his bag.
To be precise, the New Orleans Saints kicker loaded items into a suitcase. The frustration on his face — fresh off missing two kicks in a 24-10 loss to the Atlanta Falcons — was evident. Across the hall, his coach didn’t rule out the possibility of Grupe losing his job. And as that was happening, Grupe turned around once he was finished at his locker to speak with reporters.
Is he worried about getting cut?
“I mean, what’s that going to do for me?” Grupe said, shaking his head. “There’s nothing that is going to positively impact myself. Why would I think about that?”
It would be only natural if he did.
The Saints will take a hard look at whether a kicking change needs to be made after Grupe sailed two of his three attempts wide right against the Falcons. Grupe missed from distances of 38 and 47 yards that should be automatic for his profession. But the problem for Grupe and the Saints this season is that the kicker has hardly been that.
Grupe’s rough outing Sunday now puts him at 18 of 26 on the year.
No kicker has missed more field goals than Grupe this season.
Throughout Grupe’s struggles, the Saints had generally stayed patient. But coach Kellen Moore’s tone shifted after the latest meltdown.
“It’s an important thing we’ll have to evaluate,” Moore said.
This was the risk the Saints faced when the team chose to stick with Grupe as long as they did. The longer New Orleans stuck by him, the longer it risked Grupe’s problems costing them a game.
Yes, on point margin alone, Grupe’s missed kicks did not cover the total deficit of Sunday’s loss. But they undoubtedly swung the tenor of the Saints’ loss — no matter how much quarterback Tyler Shough and Grupe’s other teammates tried to deflect the blame.
Shough said the missed kicks are “really on us as an offense,” because the Saints failed to convert in the red zone. And while he has a point — New Orleans went 0-for-3 inside the 20 and badly needed touchdowns — the Saints would have been tied at halftime if both attempts had been good. And if the Saints had been even with the Falcons instead of constantly having to chase, that would likely have affected how both coaching staffs called the game.
Grupe’s second miss, his 47-yarder, was especially deflating. The Saints had a promising drive stall out just before halftime, and after Grupe’s woes, the Falcons used the final 52 seconds of the quarter to tack on another field goal, taking a 16-7 lead.
“I have no idea what it’s like to be a kicker,” defensive end Cam Jordan said. “I assume it’s a mindset thing. When you have a great kicker and he starts missing, I’ve seen it happen multiple times. I understand (there’s) a mental aspect to it all, one I can’t relate to. I just expect them … just to do their jobs.
“When a teammate is in a rut or something like it, you can’t do anything but uplift them. You have to find a way as a teammate or as a team to figure out how to get yourself out of a hole.”
At his locker, however, Grupe was insistent that his struggles had not been the result of his mentality. He said he feels his preparation is great, including how he goes about correcting his mistakes. And that process has led to results — in practice. Grupe missed only one kick in training camp — on a day it was raining — and he has seemingly been just as accurate during the week in the regular season.
But his accuracy isn’t translating to games.
“I owe it to literally everybody to be better,” Grupe said. “But I don’t have a lot of answers right now.”
If the Saints replace him, it remains to be seen whether they would sign someone off the street or turn to Charlie Smyth — the Ireland native who has spent the last two seasons on the team’s practice squad. Asked about Smyth, Moore said he’s in a “developmental role” and added he’d be part of the evaluation process.
There’s also no guarantee, of course, that the Saints will cut Grupe this week. The team’s brass has stuck by the 27-year-old ever since he beat out Wil Lutz during training camp in 2023. Coaches have cautioned that teams can release kickers too soon, only to see them thrive elsewhere.
Ironically, that’s happening with Lutz in Denver. The Broncos and Lutz reportedly agreed to a three-year extension Friday. Lutz has made 88.6% of his field-goal attempts over his three seasons in Denver, including 17 of 20 in 2025.
But Grupe hasn’t had the same level of consistency. Instead, the Saints have clung to hope that the third-year player could turn a corner.
Days earlier, Saints special-teams coordinator Phil Galiano knocked on the wooden lectern in front of him during his news conference when it was pointed out that Grupe had made his last eight field goal attempts.
Knocking on wood might not have been enough to save Grupe’s job.