Colts Camp Notebook Day 12: Colts Outplay Cardinals In Rain

Source: Icon Sportswire / Getty

INDIANAPOLIS – Goodbye, Grand Park.

Thursday brought the final Colts practice of their 2024 training camp with another joint session against the Arizona Cardinals lasting a little more than an hour in pretty steady rain.

Here are some takeaways from Day 12 of Colts training camp:

• Mother Nature reared her ugly head for the vast majority of Thursday’s final practice at Grand Park. Steady rain fell for about the entire first hour of the second joint practice between the Colts and Cardinals. And, at the start, it looked like the Colts offense had never played football in the rain. The starting offense had an awful first red-zone period in the rain, a Michel Pittman Jr. drop, followed by two dropped snaps, and run plays going nowhere. Anthony Richardson went from no glove in this period, to donning a glove on his right-throwing hand for the remainder of practice. Thankfully, for the Colts, hardly any other weather-related issues came the rest of the way.

• Technically, Richardson was just 2-of-5 on Thursday, but the offense did execute a 5-play two-minute touchdown drive of around 60-70 yards to end practice. Richardson threw a great deep ball that Alec Pierce couldn’t quite handle, but Arizona was whistled for pass interference in the end zone on the target, That led to an AR scramble TD to end the final starting period of the night. The 5-play drive started with Richardson completions to Pittman Jr., and Mitchell, before the chunk DPI, TD run. Remember, Richardson didn’t play in last year’s rain game in Baltimore, so any reps in this type of weather could come in handy, especially when you have outdoor games this year in Green Bay, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Denver, Foxborough, New York (2). Through 12 days of camp, Richardson finished unofficially 83-of-126 in team drills, completing his passes to Michael Pittman Jr. (22), Alec Pierce (11), Josh Downs (10), Kylen Granson (9), AD Mitchell (9), Jonathan Taylor (7), Mo Alie-Cox (4), Trey Sermon (4), Anthony Gould (2), Drew Ogletree (2), Jelani Woods (1), Will Mallory (1), Evan Hull (1). At 65 percent, Richardson did have a slight uptick in his completion percentage from last year’s camp.

• The Colts defense then stifled Kyler Murray and the Cardinals well short of the end zone. With Thursday’s weather certainly aiding the defense, the Colts had a bunch better day from a secondary standpoint, highlighted by a 7-on-7 interception from Kenny Moore II.

• As expected, no starters for the Colts in Saturday’s second preseason game. Like they did last year, the Colts will rest their starters against the Cardinals, following a pair of joint practices. Shane Steichen said veteran QB-Joe Flacco will also sit. So the Colts QBs on Saturday night will be Sam Ehlinger and then rookies Kedon Slovis and Jason Bean. Steichen said they will reassess things next week for the preseason finale plan in Cincinnati, but the thought is starters will log around a half of playing time, when the Colts and Bengals meet on Thursday night.

• Second-year tight end Will Mallory did have a couple of drops in the wet weather on Thursday. Is Mallory squarely on the roster bubble? Injuries have been an early-career issue for the 2023 fifth-round pick.

• While AD Mitchel continues to take the starting slot reps with Josh Downs sidelined, fifth-round rookie Anthony Gould got some looks there on Thursday, too. Gould had a nice camp and could very well factor a bit offensively.

• Outside of a brief special teams skirmish involving Colts LB-Grant Stuard, the two days of work between the Colts and Cardinals had zero fights/stoppages to separate guys. Kudos to Shane Steichen and Jonathan Gannon for that.

• The 12-practice stay at Grand Park has ended for the Colts and they elected to not make a single veteran cornerback or safety move. This drew even more attention on Thursday with Pro Bowl safety Justin Simmons ending his long summer on the open market by signing with the Falcons on a 1-year deal, reportedly for $8 million. So the position group that Chris Ballard openly took blame for at the end of last season has received nothing of note this offseason, whether that be in free agency, or with a high-ish draft pick. While many clamored for a signing like Simmons, the Colts could have been more than wise to even try for a (baseball analogy) single or a double signing, like in past Colts form: Rodney McLeod, Mike Adams or T.J. Carrie. Is there an element of every NFL team has a hole somewhere on the roster? Sure. But in this case for the Colts, they have ample cap space available to try and add some competition for this weakness. And this isn’t factoring the desperate need to have guys with injury history, i.e. Julian Blackmon and JuJu Brents, stay healthy. This was one of the biggest questions entering Colts camp. Instead, Ballard has doubled down on his belief in internal roster guys. Will waiver claim time, when roster cuts arrive on August 27 ^th , be the last place the Colts look for secondary help, before C.J. Stroud and Jordan Love arrive in Weeks 1 and 2?

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

• Here is how the starting defense looked on Thursday: DE-Tyquan Lewis, DT-Grover Stewart, DT-DeForest Buckner, DE-Kwity Paye, LB-Zaire Franklin, LB-E.J. Speed, CB-Kenny Moore II, CB-Dallis Flowers, CB-Jaylon Jones, S-Julian Blackmon, S-Nick Cross.

• Guys that stood out at Thursday’s practice: WR-Juwann Winfree, CB-Darrell Baker Jr., WR-Alec Pierce.

Injury Report : The following players did not appear to be participating at Thursday’s practice: RB-Trey Sermon (hamstring) DE-Samson Ebukam (calf), WR-Josh Downs (ankle), WR-Ashton Dulin (undisclosed), DE-Genard Avery (undisclosed). The following players remain on the PUP or non-football injury lists: DT-Raekown Davis (illness, high blood pressure).

The post Colts Camp Notebook Day 12: Colts Outplay Cardinals In Rain appeared first on 93.5 / 107.5 The Fan .