INDIANAPOLIS – The more you think about it, the more you hear, the more you wonder: Why can’t Ashton Dulin be the solution to the Indianapolis Colts’ problem at receiver? Seriously, why not?
He’s bigger than most NFL receivers at 6-2, 215 pounds, and he’s faster than almost all of them, a record-setting track star at Malone University in sprints and hurdles. At the 2019 NFL Scouting Combine he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.43 seconds, but he’s probably faster than that. I’ll show you in a moment.
For months Colts coach Frank Reich and general manager Chris Ballard have been talking up their receiver room, answering criticisms that the team hasn’t provided new quarterback Matt Ryan with enough outside targets beyond Michael Pittman Jr., Parris Campbell and rookie Alec Pierce.
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We hear Reich and Ballard talk, and we think of Mike Strachan, the flavor of the month at training camp last season, so big and fast and raw and unproductive. We hear it and think of Dezmon Patmon, built almost exactly like fellow his 2020 NFL Draft classmate Pittman, only stronger and faster.
Maybe we should be thinking of Ashton Dulin.
Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Ashton Dulin (16) warms up pregame at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022.
It was on special teams where Dulin earned his place in the NFL – and a second-team All-Pro selection in 2021 – but he also got a look at receiver last season and acquitted himself fairly well, catching 13 passes for 173 yards and two touchdowns. That includes a 63-yard score against Tampa Bay, when he ran past Bucs cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting, who attended the same 2019 NFL Scouting Combine and posted a faster time in the 40 at 4.42 seconds. Didn’t look faster than Dulin on that play, did he?
We can wonder about Strachan and Patmon and even dream a silly dream of 32-year-old free agent T.Y. Hilton, but if the answer to the Colts’ problems at receiver was on their roster last season, I’m thinking his name is Ashton Dulin. And I’m not the only one thinking that way.
I mean, Dulin’s sitting up there Wednesday, talking to reporters and wiping sweat from his face, and smiling like he knows something we don’t.
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Adam Thielen? Seriously?
Don’t get confused by all that sweat. Dulin’s not nervous. He just sweats a lot. Genetics, probably. Says he gets it from his dad.
When Dulin met with local reporters Wednesday at the Colts’ complex, one of a handful of players brought to the interview room after another day of voluntary organized team activities, he was coming almost straight from the practice field. No shower yet, no time to cool down, so Dulin’s dabbing at his face with a blue towel as he talks about what it would take for an expanded role in the Colts’ offense.
“Just goes into making the most of your opportunities,” Dulin says. “Someone’s down, injured, being able to step up and be in that role – get on offense more, be able to show I can build that trust with coaches and teammates.”
Minutes earlier, standing behind that same podium, Reich had talked up his receiving room again, and said this specifically of Dulin when asked:
“I think Ashton’s ceiling as a receiver is pretty high,” Reich had said. “Chris (Ballard) and I have felt that as he continues to develop. (We are) really excited about the work he continues to do.”
Dulin looks the part, and there’s ample reason to believe he’s on pace to become a starter, maybe even more. First, that size. He’s built like a brick, but so fast it’s sick. He earned All-Pro honors because of his work as a gunner on the punt team, fending off one and sometimes two blockers and still getting downfield before everyone else, finishing second in the NFL last season with 17 tackles on special teams.
We’ve seen his career trajectory before, too. I’m thinking of Dallas Cowboys receiver Cedrick Wilson Jr., who caught just five passes in 2019 and 17 in 2020 before catching 45 for 602 yards and six touchdowns last season. I’m thinking of the Detroit Lions’ Kalif Raymond, who fits more of the Dulin mold, having earned his roster spot on special teams and catching just 19 passes from 2016-20 before getting a bigger role last season: 48 catches, 576 yards, four TD’s.
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But if you want to dream a little dream, this is the comparison for you:
I’m thinking of another receiver from Division II, like Dulin, whose play on special teams won him a roster spot in Minnesota. This guy caught 20 passes for 281 yards and a touchdown in his first three seasons combined – Dulin’s career numbers through three seasons: 18 catches, 243 yards, two TD’s – before getting a huge opportunity in his fourth season and making good: 69 catches, 967 yards, five touchdowns.
Dulin’s bigger than this guy, though. Faster, too. So why can’t Ashton Dulin be the next Adam Thielen? Seriously, why not?
Matt Ryan, Frank Reich plus opportunity equals ... we'll see
This happened Wednesday during a seven-on-seven scrimmage, and perhaps this is the answer to my questions earlier. Why can’t Ashton Dulin be the solution to the Colts’ problem at receiver? Why can’t he make a Year 4 breakthrough like Adam Thielen?
Could be this:
During that scrimmage, valuable more for the reps with Ryan than the statistics that come with it – though Dulin did catch two passes, one for a touchdown – Dulin ran a crossing route and collided with a receiver coming the other way.
Ryan, a leader in every way, made a beeline for Dulin and explained what went wrong there, then tapped Dulin good-naturedly on the helmet.
Afterward I’m asking Dulin about his route-running, a convoluted question – not my finest work – where I’m saying he’s so big and fast, is route-running the only thing holding him back? Dulin, who played at a lower level of college football, admits he didn’t know much about that part of the game when he got here in 2019.
“Trying to continue to improve since my rookie year,” he says of getting open in the NFL. “Didn’t really know a lot.”
A player with intelligence, humility and commitment can learn, and Dulin has shown plenty of that. What a player can’t do simply by trying hard is running the 40 in 4.43 seconds or leaping 38 inches or doing both of those things at 6-2, 215 pounds. Dulin has the measurables, the coach and the quarterback. He’s about to get the opportunity.
Serious question: Why not Ashton Dulin?
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06-03-2022, 08:32 AM
Why not Dulin?
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