Westfield, IN — The Indianapolis Colts concluded their last training camp practice before scrimmaging the Green Bay Packers earlier this afternoon. After a recent slew of injuries to a number of its key players in recent days, staying healthy and executing at a high level was pertinent today, and the Colts did just that.
Particularly from an offensive standpoint, and more specifically regarding quarterback play, Indy slowly but surely stacked a promising performance. Although some mishaps certainly occurred throughout the team period-heavy practice, both quarterbacks had strong showings overall.
It’s important to note that the Colts’ CB room is currently down bad, as everyone atop the depth chart who is not named Charvarius Ward is dealing with various degrees of injury. Zaire Franklin has since returned to the fray, but additional injuries to Kwity Paye and Nick Cross make it difficult to assess quarterback play. Regardless, both quarterbacks showed up today.
It was a massive rebound for third-year QB Anthony Richardson, a near necessity after two subpar showings that came before it. Of course, the revisiting of his injury-prone status after dislocating his pinkie finger on a play that he was responsible for didn’t help his case.
Richardson began the day with a couple of slight misses to Ashton Dulin — a throw behind that could’ve netted a defensive pass interference call and a true overthrown end zone shot. He started to find a groove after checking it down to Jonathan Taylor in the flats and then finding TE Will Mallory twice for big gains. One of the two throws was a textbook example of staying calm in the pocket, climbing, and then rolling right before dropping into Mallory’s hands, whereas the other throw was a 50-50 ball that Mallory mossed the defender for.
That groove continued into his next 11-on-11 session with the backups as Richardson was quick and efficient through the air. Thanks to a couple of option rushes that helped set the tone, Richardson went 3-3 to Dulin and Mallory. Finding both on quick hitches for two of three completions, his other hookup to Dulin was a seamless connection on a wide open corner route.
That momentum quickly came to a screeching halt after DC Lou Anarumo got into his head via exotic pre-snap looks. Even though on the play prior, aka Richardson’s first snap with the starters on the day, Jonathan Taylor broke one for a legitimate 80-yard TD rush after a beautiful jump cut set him free, Richardson let the aforementioned look from Anarumo play him. It looked as if 7-8 defenders were rushing the passer pre-snap, but after Camryn Bynum and Zaire Franklin fell back into coverage post-snap, Charvarius Ward baited Richardson into throwing Michael Pittman Jr.‘s way and came down with the easy interception.
Richardson would find Tyler Warren on a designed TE screen, but a DeForest Buckner sack on the next play rattled the young quarterback. Visibly frustrated, Richardson immediately punted the ball into the Grand Park woods. He would 2-3 on his final two pass attempts of the session, with the lone incompletion being an overthrown deep shot to Josh Downs that was nearly picked off by the nearby defender.
Perhaps the Richardson of new, he and the starters rebounded in a big way during their next team period. He was an efficient 3-4 through the air, with the lone incompletion coming off an impressive PBU by rookie S/LB Hunter Wohler. Tyler Warren was the target receiver and was ligned up as the X receiver with Wohler manned up on him with no safety help. Richardson saw this matchup and took his shot, a solid 50-50 ball that Wohler won — an impressive rookie-on-rookie crime. As for the three completions, Richardson found DJ Giddens on a wide open check down in the middle of the field via a jump pass, hit Michael Pittman Jr. on an intermediate out route before going back to him on an RPO slant concept.
Finally, in his last period of the day, an 11-on-11 drive scenario from just beyond midfield, Richardson arguably had his single-best 11-on-11 session of training camp thus far. I’d have to sift through my notes to be sure, but off the top of my head, it’s hard to remember a camp drive as punctual as this was. Richardson kicked off the session in question with a beautiful find to Tyler Warren up the right sideline. He followed that up with a quick slant to Michael Pittman Jr., and then once again found Warren on a nice connection in the soft spot of the zone coverage. Richardson would run it in himself for the score, and then capped off the strong session by finding Josh Downs in the corner of the end zone for the 2-point conversion.
As the article title suggests, Daniel Jones did what he did best and provided a steady hand for the offense. In his first 11-on-11 session of the day, Jones hit on two slants to Josh Downs and Michael Pittman Jr., found Jonathan Taylor in the flats after a quick DeForest Buckner pressure, was quickly sacked by a trio of Laiatu Latu, DeForest Buckner, and Samson Ebukam, before finishing the period with a nice 15-yard out route to AD Mitchell.
Jones wasn’t as punctual in his next drive with the starters, but still remained constant for the most part. As headliners, an underthrown deep shot to a wide open AD Mitchell was completed after he timed up pivot to contort his body for the grab over Charvarius Ward — a play that was ruled complete from the sideline referee, but was heavily argued by fans and Colts defenders alike. He then found Mitchell again for a much cleaner connection on a 15-yard in-breaking route.
Reverting, Jones found his comfort zone in his next 11-on-11 session with the backups. He pretty much hit on all quick-hitting routes (outside of a Jelani Woods drop), excelled within shorter play-action concepts, and found rookie RB DJ Giddens leaking for a nice chunk gain. Tyler Goodson capped off the drive in question with an untouched wide zone scamper for the score. Jones wasn’t nearly as comfortable in his next session, but did find WR Anthony Gould on numerous occasions, a few times underneath, and once on an impressively layered throw up the left hash. He finished the drive with a QB rush for minimal yardage, found Gould on an aforementioned out-breaker that fell short of the goal line, and had his final pass attempt batted down by S Daniel Scott.
In his last session of the afternoon, Jones put on his worst period of the day, though it sticks out as such after having such a strong showing that preceded it. He started strong with back-to-back connections to Ashton Dulin, a quick slant for several, and a comeback for 10-15 yards. Jones followed that up with three straight off-target throws, though a couple of which could be argued to have been calculated throwaways, with the third incompletion being an underthrown ball caused by pressure. He rebounded to finish the day, hitting Dulin for the TD and taking it himself for the 2-point conversion.
It truly does feel like a coin flip for who comes out on top of this QB competition. Anthony Richardson has undeniably improved, even if said progression has been marginal. Daniel Jones slightly takes the nod as the more consistent passer, though his limited playstyle and potential make you question the long-term decision. If I had to predict, I’d say they end up rolling with Anthony Richardson, so long as this trajectory continues. More than anything, I believe Richardson had a natural favor going his way due to this regime living in a ‘you’ve made your bed now sleep in it’ scenario. There’s certainly not a ton of inspiration coming from this room, but both quarterbacks are slowly but surely finding their place within the Colts offense.