Colts Camp Notebook Day 9: Josh Downs Suffers Ankle Injury

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INDIANAPOLIS – Spitting rain greeted the Colts on Wednesday morning and sustained through one of the longer, full-padded practice of training camp.

The Colts practiced for more than 90 minutes on Wednesday, with just three practices left at Grand Park.

Here are some takeaways from Day 9 of Colts training camp:

• We will lead off Wednesday’s recap with a notable injury that looked extremely avoidable. During a 7-on-7 rep on Wednesday, Josh Downs caught an out-pass pattern from Anthony Richardson. Safety Nick Cross was in coverage and made a tackle on Downs from behind, taking the second-year wideout to the ground. Downs went down in pain, hardly putting any weight as he needed help from members of the athletic training staff off the field. Downs never returned to the practice field. After practice, Shane Steichen said Downs suffered an ankle injury, but was unsure of the severity. This came after Steichen was clearly upset with Cross on the practice field, following the tackle. Steichen reprimanded Cross right after the play and then later chatted with the third-year safety one-on-one. “We’ve got to be smart,” Steichen said to the media when asked about the Cross tackle of Downs, “We are competing like crazy, but we’ve got to stay off the ground and can’t go down.” Cross chalked things up as a “football play” when asked after practice about it. Coaches routinely are yelling at practice for players to keep each other up, not wanting anything resembling tackling to the ground. There’s little gray area from this play on Wednesday. For Downs, any lower body injury for a shifty wideout is something to note. Downs has easily been one of the Colts best players in this camp. A healthy Downs could even challenge Michael Pittman Jr. for the team’s lead in receptions this year. Yes, the Colts are still a full month away from the season opener vs. Houston, but a significant ankle injury to Downs could certainly impact the health of their reliable slot wideout. With Downs out the rest of Wednesday, it was rookie Anthony Gould taking over the slot duties. You almost never say an injury was “avoidable”, but this was certainly that in a “friendly” fire injury that didn’t need to happen.

• Wednesday brought a good test for the passing offense in the constant spitting rain. Anthony Richardson finished Wednesday going 10-of-16. Several of the incompletions came on poor timing from Richardson and/or the quarterback’s pass catchers unable to corral balls off fingertips. Richardson completed his 10 balls to the following guys: Michael Pittman Jr. (2), Anthony Gould (2), Kylen Granson (2), Evan Hull, Jonathan Taylor, Mo Alie-Cox, AD Mitchell. It was mostly a dink and dunk day of completions, but Richardson did throw a nice ball down the field in that cornerback/safety zone window to Pittman Jr. Through 9 days of camp, Richardson is 59-of-94 in team drills, completing his passes to Michael Pittman Jr. (14), Josh Downs (10), Kylen Granson (9), AD Mitchell (6), Alec Pierce (5), Mo Alie-Cox (4), Jonathan Taylor (4), Anthony Gould (2), Drew Ogletree (2), Jelani Woods (1), Trey Sermon (1), Will Mallory (1), Evan Hull (1).

• Shane Steichen said he will finalize the starting playing time plan for Sunday’s preseason opener on Thursday (will share with the media post-practice on Friday), but it sounds like the first teamers will be out there for some time. “Possibly, yes,” a smiling Steichen said on Wednesday when asked if the starters are likely to play some. Again, in last year’s preseason’s opener, the Colts starters on offense played 3 series and the starters on defense played 2 series.

• As we’ve seen a good amount recently, free safety Rodney Thomas II continues to creep into first-team reps. And when he’s one the field, that keeps Julian Blackmon at the strong safety spot. The Colts didn’t outright bench Cross after the Wednesday tackle of Josh Downs, but it did look like Thomas II got a few more first-team reps throughout the remainder of practice.

• Wednesday might have been the best practice of camp for young cornerback JuJu Brents. The second-year cornerback had a really nice start with a couple of timely plays on the ball in the early 11-on-11 period.

• I know the Josh Downs injury news takes the headline for the day, but he was absolutely cooking Chris Lammons in 1-on-1 drills on Wednesday. And these were down the field receptions, as Downs wants to tap into more explosive plays in his second NFL season.

• If you want to know where Jelani Woods is on the depth chart, he was taking some developmental reps on Wednesday with Kedon Slovis and Jason Bean at quarterback. Woods has a ways to go to move his way up the depth chart.

• Dayo Odeyingbo (calf) was back at practice on Wednesday, after missing the last week-plus. I’d expect a healthy Odeyignbo to compete for early-down run reps, while also as a possibility in the interior on pass downs.

• Here is how the starting offense looked on Wednesday: QB-Anthony Richardson, RB-Jonathan Taylor, WR-Alec Pierce, WR-Michael Pittman Jr. WR-Josh Downs, TE-Drew Ogletree, LT-Bernhard Raimann, LG-Quenton Nelson, C-Ryan Kelly, RG-Will Fries, RT-Braden Smith.

• Here is how the starting defense looked on Wednesday: DE-Laiatu Latu, DT-Grover Stewart, DT-DeForest Buckner, DE-Kwity Paye, LB-Zaire Franklin, LB-E.J. Speed, CB-Kenny Moore II, CB-JuJu Brents, CB-Jaylon Jones, S-Julian Blackmon, S-Nick Cross.

• Guys that stood out at Wednesday’s practice: DT-Adetomiwa Adebawore, TE-Mo Alie-Cox, TE-Jelani Woods, CB-JuJu Brents, CB-Clay Fields III, RB-Evan Hull.

Injury Report : The following players did not appear to be participating at Wednesday’s practice: DE-Samson Ebukam (calf). TE-Will Mallory (hamstring), LB-Jaylon Carlies (hip), LB-Liam Anderson (undisclosed), WR-Ashton Dulin (undisclosed), DL-Tyquan Lewis (undisclosed). The following players remain on the PUP or non-football injury lists: DT-Raekown Davis (illness, high blood pressure).

2024 Colts Training Camp Schedule

-8/9 (Friday): 10:00-11:00 AM practice

-8/11 (Sunday): 1 ^st preseason game vs. Broncos (1:00)

-8/14 (Wednesday joint practices with Cardinals): 6:00-8:00 PM practice

-8/15 (Thursday joint practices with Cardinals): 6:00-7:20 PM practice

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