Colts Camp Notebook Day 3: Julian Blackmon Shines

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INDIANAPOLIS – Morning rain eventually subsided for the Colts to get their scheduled Sunday afternoon practice in.

The third practice of training camp marked the last one without full pads, with those coming on Tuesday morning.

Here are some takeaways from Day 3 of Colts training camp:

• After a sloppy Saturday practice for the offense, the unit bounced back on Sunday. The offensive line issues (flags and protection wise) were nowhere near as abundant as on Saturday morning. Anthony Richardson had his most active day throwing, going 11-of-16 with completions to Josh Downs (3), Kylen Granson, Will Mallory, Alec Pierce, Jonathan Taylor, AD Mitchell, Michael Pittman Jr. Drew Ogletree and Jelani Woods. Richardson started 7-of-7 before cooling off to end practice. The starting offense had a rocky third-down period to end practice though, with Richardson nearly picked by Zaire Franklin. Richardson did throw his first INT of camp on Sunday, with Julian Blackmon making a hell of a leaping snag. Through 3 days of camp, Richardson is 19-of-25 in team drills, completing his passes to Josh Downs (6), Michael Pittman Jr. (3), Alec Pierce (2), Kylen Granson (2), Mo Alie-Cox (1), Will Mallory (1), Jonathan Taylor (1), AD Mitchell (1), Drew Ogletree (1), Jelani Woods (1).

• Sunday was a reminder that Julian Blackmon is very good at football and very important to these 2024 Colts. Blackmon had a leaping INT of Anthony Richardson and later batted down what would have been a huge play to Josh Downs. The Blackmon INT had Shane Steichen shaking his head, lauding the instinctual nature of his starting strong safety. According to Steichen, Richardson made the right read, but it was Blackmon making a tremendous read out of his zone responsibility for the INT. Blackmon makes this staff sleep well at night and losing him for any period of time would test this team.

• Braden Smith made his 2024 offseason practice debut on Sunday afternoon. Off-season knee surgery, after Smith missed 7 games last season due to knee issues, had kept the veteran right tackle sidelined through the spring and first couple of practices at Grand Park. With Smith out, it’s been second-year tackle Blake Freeland (a bit more beefed up from last season) taking those starting RT reps. Expect Freeland and rookie third-round pick Matt Goncalves to compete for that swing backup tackle spot. And we’ve obviously seen that to be necessary with Smith not only missing 7 games last year, but another 6 games in 2021. Smith is certainly one of the Colts most indispensable players, along with fellow starting tackle Bernhard Raimann. On Smith’s first day back, it was still Freeland taking the starting RT reps as Smith will be brought along slowly.

• We got a real training camp fight on Sunday afternoon. To no one’s surprise, Michael Pittman Jr. was involved with cornerback Jaylon Jones the other trading blows. Camp skirmishes are somewhat common, but this one went to another level on the far sideline. Both players stayed in practice, after it took a while to break it up + calm down the parties.

• After a quiet first two days at Grand Park, AD Mitchell made a couple of notable plays on Sunday. The first brought quite the reaction from the crowd with Mitchell hauling in a heavily contested 1-on-1 ball with Dallis Flowers in coverage. As Mitchell’s helmet came off, the rookie popped up and pumped up the already amped up crowd. Later on Sunday, Mitchell made a juggling snag in an 11-on-11 period with Joe Flacco guiding the second team.

• It took until practice No. 3 before the first real notable injury occurred. Defensive end Samson Ebukam went down during an 11-on-11 rep to the point where Shane Steichen had to move the drill further down the field with the veteran DE needing more medical attention. Steichen said Ebukam suffered a calf injury. With Ebukam out for the rest of practice, it was Tyquan Lewis as the new starting defensive end opposite Kwity Paye.

• Full pads are coming Tuesday. NFL rules mandate a warm-up period to training camp before full pads can be worn. So here comes some truer evaluations to the trench play. Count Shane Steichen as a fan of wanting to see rookie Laiatu Latu in the full pads. Latu once again had an impressive rush during team drills on Sunday, this one coming against starter Bernhard Raimann.

• Jim Irsay was at Grand Park on Sunday, marking his first public appearance since the 2023 regular season. Irsay was his typical uber optimistic self when asked about his 2024 team. Irsay said this Colts team is the “best one they’ve fielded in a while,” pointing back to Andrew Luck’s retirement in 2019. The Colts Owner is battling through a left leg injury, hindering his ability to walk/move around.

• Will Mallory made a couple nice grabs on Sunday. The second-year tight end is not one to sleep on at tight end.

• Here is how the starting offense looked on Sunday: QB-Anthony Richardson, RB-Jonathan Taylor, WR-Michael Pittman Jr., WR-Alec Pierce, TE-Kylen Granson, TE-Mo Alie-Cox LT-Bernhard Raimann, LG-Quenton Nelson, C-Ryan Kelly, RG-Will Fries, RT-Blake Freeland.

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

• Guys that stood out at Sunday’s practice: WR-AD Mitchell, S-Julian Blackmon, WR-Ashton Dulin, TE-Will Mallory, DE-Tyquan Lewis

Injury Report : The following players did not appear to be participating at Sunday’s practice: DL-Dayo Odeyingbo (calf, was riding stationary bike). The following players remain on the PUP or non-football injury list: CB-Chris Lammons (ankle), DT-Raekown Davis (illness, high blood pressure, should return soon).

2024 Colts Training Camp Schedule

-7/30 (Tuesday): 10:00-11:15 AM practice

-7/31 (Wednesday): 10:00-11:30 AM practice

-8/2 (Friday): 9:00-10:45 AM practice

-8/4 (Sunday): 4:00-5:30 PM practice

-8/5 (Monday): 2:00-3:30 PM practice

-8/7 (Wednesday): 9:00-10:30 AM practice

-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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