5 Things Learned: Which Colts Shined In Preseason Finale?

5 Things Learned: Which Colts Shined In Preseason Finale?

INDIANAPOLIS – The August games are over. It’s time to make the hard decisions.

Saturday brought another Colts preseason game, with Shane Steichen’s bunch losing 25-16 to the Detroit Lions.

What was learned from the Colts preseason finale?

FIVE THINGS LEARNED

-Spencer Shrader Seals Kicking Job? What a preseason it was for Spencer Shrader. The big leg kicker put the exclamation point on it by splitting the uprights on a 60-yard field goal in Saturday’s third quarter. Blake Grupe rebounded from his missed 36-yarder last week, to have a perfect afternoon. He made a 46-yarder off the right upright, and another from 36 yards. His day included a 38-yarder extra point, as Grupe kicked in the first half, and Shrader in the second half. Oddly, the Colts bypassed a field goal chance for Shrader in the 3^rd quarter, going for a 4^th-and 4 from the Detroit 24-yard line. The Colts are enamored with the big leg potential of Shrader. And we have seen that show up deeper into August, as he has gotten further removed from a nasty knee injury last fall. Assuming Shrader locked things up on Saturday, can the Colts trade Grupe in the next 24 hours for something? Grupe’s 36-yard miss last week is his only true negative since joining the team late season. These are two quality kickers, in their current state.

–Calm Anthony Richardson Sr. Afternoon: That was a nice, ho-hum afternoon of work from Anthony Richardson Sr. Typical Richardson leads to a good amount of volatility, but this wasn’t that. Richardson hit his layups, with his lone misses coming more down the field. He was unable to give Laquon Treadwell or Nick Westbrook-Ikhine opportunities in 1-on-1 matchups, and also had a clean pocket miss of an open Deion Burks. But a 7-of-10 day for 80 yards, leading 2 of the 3 drives into scoring range is a pretty steady day for the fourth-year quarterback. We didn’t see much from Richardson’s legs on Saturday, which is usually a dynamic element. This QB2 dilemma now will come down to what flavor does Shane Steichen want behind Daniel Jones on game day.

–Good Amount Of Starters Play: Let’s go over how the Colts handled their starters on Saturday. Offensively, the Colts played their starting offensive line for the first series. It was a reserve group of skill players to go around Anthony Richardson Sr. Although Keenan Allen did play around a handful of snaps, catching a nice crosser early for 24 yards. Defensively, the Colts had 9 of their expected 11 opening day starters playing a series (no CB-Mooney Ward-back, no S-A.J. Haulcy-ankle). The defensive stay on the field was cut short for good reason, as Sauce Gardner read Detroit QB’s Luke Altmyer’s eyes beautiful to haul in an interception during a scramble situation. The starting action on Saturday included second-year cornerback Justin Walley making his NFL debut, playing his first football game in 644 days. Unlike the Lions, the Colts had at least some run for more than half of their 22 starters on Sunday.

–Mixed Bag For Riley Leonard: After a jittery first two preseason games, Leonard had his best moment of August followed by another negative. Leonard hung in under pressure on a 4^th-and-6 and lofted a perfect ball to Anthony Gould on a second-quarter drive that ended in a touchdown. That highlight low was met with the opposite on the next drive. Leonard and the Colts got behind the chains and instead of eating a sack or a throw away in field goal range, Leonard tried to force one, and was picked off. The second-year QB ended his quarter of work going 3-of-7 for 48 yards and an INT. If you are going strictly off of preseason results, you can’t give the backup job to Leonard. But we will see how the Colts choose to handle things in slotting guys into QB2 and QB3 on game days.

–Who Helped? Who Didn’t? Similar to last week, I didn’t find a ton of individual positives from Saturday. Deion Burks had a trio of grabs as he tries to make the roster. The Colts found some needed defensive playmaking in the turnover department. On the negative side of things, it’s rather egregious how poor the snapping as been from the Colts reserve centers this preseason. The Dalton Tucker experiment at center has not gone well. The waiver wire must be explored there. Also, the Colts reserve defense really struggled to stop the run and get off the field on third down. Cornerback Rob Carter Jr., who figured to be competing for a potential roster spot, had a rough afternoon. Outside of the Sauce Gardner INT on the first drive, the Lions backups had touchdown drives of 70, 87 and 76 yards in the first half. In the third quarter, safety Trey Washington forced a fumble, as he could very well round out the safety position. For those on rookie linebacker watch, both CJ Allen and Bryce Boettcher were playing in the 4^th quarter on Saturday, an indicator they are further down on the depth chart than others in that room.

QUICK HITTERS

Starting Offense: QB-Anthony Richardson, RB-Seth McGowan, WR-Coleman Owen, WR-Keenan Allen, WR-Laquon Treadwell, TE-Mo Alie-Cox, LT-Bernhard Raimann, LG-Quenton Nelson, C-Tanor Bortolini, RG-Matt Goncalves, RT-Jalen Travis

Starting Defense: DE-Laiatu Latu, DT-Grover Stewart, DT-DeForest Buckner, DE-Arden Key., LB-Jaylon Carlies, LB-Jaylon Carlies, CB-Cam Taylor-Britt, CB-Sauce Gardner, CB-Justin Walley., S-Hunter Wohler, S-Cam Bynum

Injury Report: The following Colts left Saturday’s game due to injury: WR-Coleman Owen

What’s Next: The Colts will now have a rapid transition to roster cuts, with those (from 90 to 53) due by Sunday at 6:00 PM eastern. Next up for the Colts is two weeks of practice before the regular season opens vs. the Ravens on September 13^th.