INDIANAPOLIS -- The Colts have broken camp for the summer. They practiced Tuesday and Wednesday for veteran minicamp and decided, like most teams, to cut the final practice in order to head into the break a day early.
The Colts ended with a punt return competition involving offensive and defensive linemen. They'd get six tries and needed to catch two. The first two up were offensive tackle Matthew Vanderslice and defensive tackle Jamal Woods, and they went 2-for-2, sending the entire Colts team into a circus of cheers and celebration.
Here are some observations from the two days of practices:
Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson (5) works through passing drills Wednesday, June 14, 2023, during mandatory minicamp at the Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center in Indianapolis.
Anthony Richardson sees new challenges
The Colts have been switching up the flow of their 11-on-11 settings in order to place their rookie quarterback and the players around him in some different but challenging situations. After drilling red-zone work hard in organized training activities, they spent Tuesday and Wednesday in more of a full-field look, where Anthony Richardson got a chance to show off the upside of his arm, but with a twist: These play calls were largely unscripted.
Not until he was in the huddle was Richardson processing the play, and some of them were newer concepts he hadn't run in the condensed-field red-zone looks of previous practices.
"It stresses the mind on everybody and sees where everyone is at," coach Shane Steichen said.
MORE:Anthony Richardson & Gardner Minshew have a bond that keeps growing despite QB competition
The results, unexpectedly, were rather up-and-down.
The good included a 7-on-7 post route where Richardson launched a ball 60 yards on a rainbow into the outstretched arms of Vyncent Smith for a touchdown. Then, in 11-on-11, he showed off some better touch and placement near the sideline on a scramble throw. He also had a scramble where he launched from one end of the pocket to the other with his combine-record broad jump ability before throwing the ball away.
The bad included a 5-of-13 performance in 11-on-11 settings, an interception over the middle to E.J. Speed and a near pick on a scramble play where nobody was open and he decided against throwing the ball away.
Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson (5) works through footwork drills Wednesday, June 14, 2023, during mandatory minicamp at the Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center in Indianapolis.
Richardson the player has been as advertised, an athletic phenom who needs to work on the consistency of his mechanics, decision-making and ball placement. He has a much easier time hitting receivers in stride on vertical downfield concepts, where he just has to measure the loft of the ball to a spot on a straight line. He struggles more with leading receivers moving East-West or diagonally, as it requires both a calculation of loft as well as aiming at a spot that isn't quite so predictable.
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But Richardson the professional is the one who has been turning some heads. Teammates often find him in the building when they arrive, head into his iPad or the notes he takes during team meetings. Gone are the pre-draft comparisons he's made of himself to Cam Newton and Lamar Jackson. His answers show an awareness that betrays the fact that he just turned 21.
"The game isn’t always physical," Richardson said. "Like I said earlier, we’re playing against pros. Those guys are physically gifted as well. Everybody is running 4.4s, 4.5s, 4.6s. Just because I’m fast doesn’t mean I can just run around people because they’re fast as well. I just want to get mentally better every day and go out there and play quarterback and not just be a freak athlete that knows how to throw the ball far.”
Indianapolis Colts cornerback Dallis Flowers (33) works through defensive back drills Wednesday, June 14, 2023, during mandatory minicamp at the Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center in Indianapolis.
The secondary keeps getting younger
This isn't a time of year for many huge developments, but one that has been obvious to see is just how young the Colts secondary has become. That trend seemed obvious when they traded Stephon Gilmore to the Cowboys and lost Rodney McLeod in free agency, then drafted three cornerbacks and a safety and did not add any veterans. But as practices have played out, that glaring reality has only cemented.
Since Isaiah Rodgers Sr. got wrapped up in an NFL gambling investigation last week, the Colts have turned to two second-year undrafted players at outside cornerback in Dallis Flowers and Darrell Baker Jr. They combine for 174 career defensive snaps, which all belong to Flowers. The two got plenty of run this week because of an ongoing wrist injury for second-round pick JuJu Brents and a hamstring issue for fifth-round pick Darius Rush.
But just on Wednesday, the Colts placed fifth-round safety Daniel Scott on injured reserve with a torn ACL. That takes their safety depth chart down to Julian Blackmon at his new strong safety spot, second-year Rodney Thomas II at free safety and a backup duo of second-year Nick Cross and second-year international player Marcel Dabo. Cross and Dabo currently have 122 career snaps between them, all belonging to Cross, who barely played safety after Week 2 of his rookie season.
It places an extra load on Blackmon and Kenny Moore II to be the communicators on and off the field. These are roles that Gilmore, McLeod, Xavier Rhodes and Andrew Sendejo have held the past two years. Blackmon and Moore II aren't quite as well-traveled as those names, particularly in these kinds of leadership spots, but they bring a unique blend with Moore II's pre-snap vision and Blackmon's vocal fire, plus their connection of having both played Moore II's position now.
"I love to play with Julian Blackmon," Moore II said. "As an athlete, you have to put your pride aside in certain situations. With a position like the nickel, you have to have a back seat on a lot of things. Being an inside corner, a lot of things will open up where when things break down, it'll seem like it's your fault or like it's just you out there. ... He was willing to learn. I think it'll help him a lot when it comes to playing strong safety."
MORE:Julian Blackmon has a new role -- and it's much bigger than the safety position
The bright side of attrition is the opportunities that arise. Jaylon Jones, a seventh-round pick from Texas A&M, has taken advantage with some outside cornerback reps with an interception and a nifty breakup along the sideline. Flowers showed off his athleticism with a breakup on a jump ball and then an interception of Minshew that showed the full extension of his 6-foot-1 frame.
Quick hits
Jonathan Taylor hasn't practiced yet in these settings after offseason ankle surgery, but he's becoming the great intrigue of this new Richardson-led offense. Players find themselves envisioning what it'll be like to defend the new zone-read and quarterback run designs with the threat of an NFL rushing leader in the backfield. But what's really hanging over Taylor is the discussion of his future beyond this contract season and how much the Colts can really build this out until they square that away. That conversation took a twist as Taylor changed agents to Malki Kawa and Ethan Lock, who negotiated Shaquille Leonard's five-year, $99.3 million extension. In a rare moment of introspection, Taylor made it clear he wants to be paid appropriately, saying, "Hopefully, they can see the value, hopefully we can explain the value, not that it needs explanation."
Trevor Denbow had the best defensive play of the two days with an interception he tipped to himself off Sam Ehlinger.
The most impressive offensive play might have been Ashton Dulin's catch on a basic slant pattern that Richardson threw as if it was a hitch, and Dulin scooped it from behind him and kept running.
Alec Pierce returned to practice, and the Colts made a concerted effort to get him reps with Richardson. He's the only starting receiver who practiced this week, with Michael Pittman Jr. out with a hip injury and Josh Downs sidelines with a knee issue. Pierce caught 41 passes for 593 yards and two touchdowns during a rookie season that cycled through three quarterbacks, and though the Colts haven't officially named a starter yet, he could acknowledge that his job is quite different this season. "Last year, we had the ultimate vet in Matt Ryan, and he's a great leader, but he'd been doing it for countless years and had a lot of success," he said. "Now we have young guys, and young guys do different things. We have more mobility back there and run different types of plays. Gardner (Minshew) and Anthony both have some of that capability -- one maybe a little more than the other."
Pierce's return showed the importance of chemistry between quarterback and receivers, as the Colts had a hard time getting him in the flow of the offense on his classic slant and fade routes. But that time will come very soon. The Colts will meet up in the coming week around Indianapolis to throw as a group, and then they'll head down to Jacksonville to train where Richardson and Minshew have for years with 6 Points.
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06-14-2023, 05:32 PM
Colts minicamp observations: Anthony Richardson sees new challenges as a secondary gr
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