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WESTFIELD – Observations from the Colts’ Saturday afternoon practice at Grand Park Sports Complex:

Offensive tackles in flux
As much as the Colts have reason to be confident about the state of their interior offensive line, they have been on a search for elusive answers at offensive tackle.

Thursday night’s preseason opener demonstrated this and so, too, did Saturday’s practice. With veteran left tackle Anthony Castonzo and guard-tackle Denzelle Good still sidelined with injuries, the Colts have had a revolving door of candidates playing both tackle spots, some more effectively than others.

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On Thursday, the Colts opened with Joe Haeg at left tackle and J’Marcus Webb at right tackle. Haeg gave up the lone sack in the two series played by quarterback Andrew Luck. During Saturday’s practice, Le’Raven Clark (left tackle) and rookie Braden Smith (right tackle) ran with the first team. The lack of continuity has resulted in a muddled the picture – particularly at right tackle, where the job appears to be wide open.

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Good and Austin Howard are presumably the leading candidates, but it’s hard to tell right now.

“We really like what Austin brings to the table but we’ve said right from the very start it’s open competition,” coach Frank Reich said. “The best guy will start. So, we have been rotating those guys through there. And each guy has had a lot of good moments. We feel good about the depth we have right there. we’re just waiting to see who’s going to emerge.”

Reich doesn’t seem worried. But should he be? Castonzo (hamstring) will be back, Reich hopes, before the end of the preseason. The goal is to get him playing time in exhibition games. But the Colts right now look to be as far away from answers at right tackle as they’ve been all offseason.

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Sloppy practice
Maybe it was the jet lag. Whatever the case, the Colts weren’t sharp in their abbreviated workout Saturday, with a slew of dropped passes by the receivers and running backs.

The Colts had a long last couple of days, departing Seattle after Thursday’s game past midnight Pacific Standard Time and landing in Indianapolis after sunrise. Players had a day off Friday. Reich used the opportunity to offer a needed reminder to his players.

“It was a little commentary on today in that, what makes our profession unique is we get critiqued on everything we do,” Reich said. “You’re being evaluated on every rep, every meeting and that’s hard to take. That makes us mentally tough. That makes us better. That’s what we crave. That’s what we want.”

Reich added, “There were a few too many mental errors and more drops than normal. That’s what we’ve got to fight through.”

One guilty party on Saturday was running back Nyheim Hines, who dropped the first pass of full-team drills from quarterback Jacoby Brissett (Luck had a day off). That’s relevant because Hines muffed two punts in Thursday’s game.

Together again
Malik Hooker and Clayton Geathers were back on the field together Saturday, with free safety Hooker taking his first full-team reps since undergoing season-ending knee surgery in October. Geathers, who is also recovering from knee surgery, has been a few steps ahead of Hooker in his recovery. Geathers is expected to suit up in pads in the coming week, while Hooker might have to wait until Week 3 of the preseason.