Colts Camp Notebook Day 7: Daniel Jones Strong Again

Colts Camp Notebook Day 7: Daniel Jones Strong Again

INDIANAPOLIS – Thursday brought another lively Colts night practice to Grand Park.

The Colts practiced for nearly two hours on Thursday, putting the full pads on for the third straight session.

Here are some takeaways from Day 7 of Colts training camp:

-“He’s on fire right now,” is how Shane Steichen described his starting quarterback following Thursday’s night practice. Indeed, Daniel Jones is. Unofficially, I had Jones 20-of-26 in a practice that is about the closest the Colts will get to simulating some semblance of real football during camp. The incompletions were rarely for errant tosses. Jones dropped a beautiful wheel route sideline ball into the hands of reserve running back Ulysses Bentley IV to cap a quick touchdown drive. Later in practice, Jones delivered a frozen rope strike into a tight window at the back of the end zone to Ashton Dulin (who made a tremendous grab himself in getting his toes down). Perhaps the best sight from Jones on Thursday was two scrambles that looked pretty darn legit. As we dissect Jones’ movement, these scrambles appeared to have a little more juice to them compared to some earlier in camp. And Thursday’s performance came with the Colts back healthy at cornerback and Jones still without Alec Pierce and frequent first-team repper Laquon Treadwell.

-As we’ve grown accustomed to this camp, the production for the offense quickly waned once Jones exited. Anthony Richardson Sr. and Riley Leonard spilt the second-team periods on Thursday. Richardson’s unit was woeful in moving the football. He was picked early on, with Deion Burks unable to pull down a ball that hit his leaping hands. Around the string of incompletions, Richardson had multiple plays whistled dead for “sacks.” Among the continued problems for Richardson leading the second/third units, he couldn’t handle another an additional snap on Thursday. This one came under center, with Dalton Tucker snapping to him.

-Riley Leonard had more positive moments than Richardson on Thursday. But he was picked as well, on a very nice play by Austin Ajiake. The Colts are desperately wanting more consistency from their reserve quarterbacks. We haven’t seen much of it through the first half of training camp.

-Again, it’s less than ideal to see CJ Allen dealing with another injury this early into his first NFL training camp. Allen missed the first two practices of camp due to a calf injury. He was sidelined Thursday due to a hamstring issue. Even prior to this, the Colts were rotating a ton at linebacker. That continued on Thursday night, with Austin Ajiake and Bryce Boettcher getting the initial starting run. Ajiake is a name we should not write off at linebacker by any means. He’s had two interceptions in camp and is getting a decent amount of first-team looks. If Allen’s injury situation continues at all, I could easily seeing Ajiake starting.

-The Colts kicked many field goals on Thursday night. Blake Grupe had his first missed kick of training camp on Thursday, but he still padded his lead over Spencer Shrader. In the first kicking period on Thursday, both Grupe and Spencer Shrader went wide left from 53 yards. The two were perfect from the following distances 33, 33, 39, 46. Later in practice, both kickers went again. Grupe hit from 34, 41, 49, 57 and then was short from 61. Shrader made from 34, 49 and 57, but was wide left from 41 and hit the left upright as he missed from 61. Shrader has now missed 8 times in front of the media this offseason, with Grupe missing twice.

-We mentioned Dulin earlier, and Thursday was probably his most productive practice of camp. It’s been a rather quiet camp for Dulin. Veteran Nick Westbrook-Ikhine stacked another positive session together. He had some notable grabs on a third down, another one for a touchdown and a third in front of Sauce Gardner.

-With a practice lasting nearly two hours, that means more reps for guys down the depth chart a bit. And Ulysses Bentley IV took advantage of that on Thursday. The undrafted free agent from last year first hauled in a beautiful sideline ball from Daniel Jones for a touchdown. On the next series, Bentley IV was getting reps with the second unit, and took off down the field on a catch and run that also ended in the end zone. With D.J. Giddens (hamstring) out right now, the running backs are getting pushed up the depth chart a bit. I doubt they have room for a 4^th running back, but this is where Bentley IV could factor in.

-As the Colts continue to try and expand DeForest Buckner in team/full-padded practices, they seemed to use him in mostly a third-down role on Thursday night. Unlike some of the second and third teams, the starting defense has yet to dial up major pressure around Daniel Jones, outside of a blitz here or there that gets home.

-Here is how the starting offense looked on Thursday: QB-Daniel Jones, RB-Jonathan Taylor, WR-Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, WR-Josh Downs, WR-Ashton Dulin, TE-Tyler Warren, LT-Bernhard Raimann, LG-Quenton Nelson, C-Tanor Bortolini, RG-Matt Goncalves, RT-Jalen Travis.

-Here is how the starting defense looked on Thursday: DE-Laiatau Latu, DT-Grover Stewart, DE-Arden Key, DT-Jerry Tillery, LB-Austin Ajiake, LB-Bryce Boettcher, CB-Justin Walley, CB-Charvarius Ward Sr., CB-Sauce Gardnre, S-Cam Bynum, S-A.J. Haulcy.

-Guys that stood out at Thursday’s practice: QB-Daniel Jones, RB-Ulysses Bentley IV, LB-Austin Ajiake, RB-Anderson Castle

Injury Report: The following players did not appear to be participating at Thursday’s practice: WR-Alec Pierce (calf, on PUP), S-Hunter Wohler (hamstring), DT-Derrick Nnadi (toe), LB-CJ Allen (hamstring), WR-Laquon Treadwell (hamstring), RB-D.J. Giddens (hamstring), WR-Eli Pancol (undisclosed)

2026 Colts Training Camp Schedule

-8/8 (Saturday): 10:00-11:35 AM practice

-8/9 (Sunday): 10:00-11:30 AM practice

-8/11 (Tuesday): Joint practice at New England

-8/13 (Thursday): Preseason game at New England, 7:30 PM

-8/15 (Saturday): 4:00-5:00 PM practice

-8/16 (Sunday): 4:00-5:30 PM practice

-8/19 (Wednesday joint practices with Falcons): 3:00-5:00 PM practice

-8/20 (Thursday joint practices with Falcons): 3:00-4:30 PM practice

-8/22 (Saturday): 2^nd preseason game vs. Falcons, 1:00 PM