INDIANAPOLIS – A regular season dry run week has the Colts following a script that they will put into action next week, with an actual game waiting at the end of the week.
For now though, Wednesday’s practice was the second to last on-field impression for guys to make, with roster cuts coming to 53 on Saturday.
What were the takeaways from the Colts on Wednesday?
-We’ve heard the Colts gush about their roster depth, particularly in the trenches. We know even the best teams in the NFL have some questions about their roster. When asked about an ‘unproven’ or an ‘unknown’ group heading into the 2020 season, Frank Reich wouldn’t budge. “Fair question,” Reich first acknowledged. “I probably don’t want to put anything in the category of ‘unproven.’ I feel like we have proven a lot with the reps that we have gotten. Our level of confidence in all of our groups is really strong. We do feel good about this roster. We will continue to adapt and adjust as we go. I look at every position and I see winning football, so expectations are high.” In Vegas, the over/under on wins for the Colts seems to be right around 9 for this season. Internally, the Colts would probably bump that up by a couple of wins.
-Frank Reich was candid on Wednesday in explaining why the team released veteran fullback Roosevelt Nix earlier this week. “Rosie is a good football player,” Reich began. “He’s a winning football player. It wasn’t his fault that we had to let him go. What happened is our plan and intention was we were going to develop a smaller part of our offense into a two-back scheme. With the lack of an offseason and all those 300-400 reps of plays we would have gotten in the (spring) offseason, we just weren’t at a point where we had the confidence that this was going to be 10 percent of our offense, which would have been a target number for us. We just never got there. In Rosie’s defense, it was more about the lack of the offseason. We feel we are such a good 1-back offense team, we didn’t feel like we had the time to develop a 2-back offense to the extent that we wanted to.”
-On Wednesday, Philip Rivers met the media and was asked about the key metrics he views in evaluating individual quarterback play. Outside of winning, Rivers pointed to completion percentage and yards per attempt as two important metrics to him. For his career, Rivers has completed 64.7 percent of his passes and has averaged 7.8 yards per attempt (last season Rivers completed 66.0 percent of his passes and had a 7.8 yards per attempt). Earlier this week, offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni gave his thoughts on those key areas. The offensive coordinator said an ideal completion percentage would be above 65 percent, and hovering closer to 70 percent, and a yards per attempt number over 7.0. In 2019, Jacoby Brissett completed 59 percent of his passes, with a yards per attempt of 6.6.
-Rivers is quite the fan of the big arm that Jacob Eason brings to the NFL: “He can really throw it. He threw a ball the other days in individuals where I just shook my head a little bit,” Rivers says of Eason. “I can’t do that (laughs). I can’t make that throw. He has a big arm, strong, seems to see it really well. I just think the thing now for young quarterbacks getting in the huddle and calling a play is weird for them. It wasn’t so much 17 years ago, but now these college guys come in and they are rarely in a huddle and certainly rarely calling plays, with the verbiage that we have. But he’s seemed to pick that up well.” Rivers said his own bag of throws doesn’t have the same velocity and spin that Eason can produce to passes on the boundary. “I just have to throw it a lot earlier than he does,” a smiling Rivers added.
-Much is made about the unique side-ish arm, sometimes borderline underhand, throwing motion from Philip Rivers. On Wednesday, Rivers had some fun in entertaining those questions, in getting asked about describing his motion to someone who has never seen it. “You’ve got to see it,” Rivers said with a smile. “It’s hard to describe to you.” Rivers said the birth of such a motion comes from trying to throw a normal sized football at such a young age (he’s the son of a high school football coach). This motion is staying alive a bit, with Rivers saying his oldest son throws the same way he does. While in college at North Carolina State, then Wolfpack offensive coordinator Norm Chow originally asked an early enrolled Rivers if the right shoulder was bothering the freshman upon seeing him throw in person. Chow even sent film of the motion to Mike Holmgren for further inspecting. After viewing it, Holmgren reassured Chow that as long as balls weren’t getting batted down or they were inaccurate throws, do not touch the motion. Two decades later, Rivers is still slinging his towards a possible induction into Canton.
-One slight tweak I made to my 53-man roster prediction: I’m going with rookie LB-Jordan Glasgow over LB-Matthew Adams. After some thinking, I realized keeping the 2020 draft pick makes more sense than the 2018 draft pick. The Colts love what Glasgow brings to the special teams unit and I don’t think they want to risk that on the waiver wire, even if he won’t play on defense this year.
-A week after being involved in a car crash, Parris Campbell was practicing in a blue (contact) jersey on Wednesday. That’s a great sign for him being ready Week 1.
-Wednesday was a rest day for WR-T.Y. Hilton and S-Julian Blackmon. We still have yet to see DT-Sheldon Day (ankle) and DE-Kemoko Turay (ankle) practice in full pads. The health of both of those guys will impact roster decisions with Day on the roster right now and Turay on the physically unable to perform list.
-The Colts will practice again on Thursday this week before taking Friday off, with roster cuts coming Saturday. The 2020 season opener comes September 13th in Jacksonville.
