BK’s Day 13 Colts Training Camp Notebook – Defense Wrecks Havoc on Panthers Offensive Line, McCaffrey is Elite
It’s the KB and BK combo from Indianapolis Colts training camp.
With the Carolina Panthers in town at Grand Park in Westfield, Kevin Bowen and I had to split things up to break down everything you need to know from the initial practice between the two clubs. They’ll go again tomorrow at 4 PM, before preseason game numero uno on Sunday.
While KB locked things down for the Colts offense against the Panthers defense, I had my eye on the opposite. Darius Leonard and the D-core up against Sam Darnold, Christian McCaffrey and the Panthers offense.
Let’s get one thing straight, the Panthers offensive line is bad. Take this as reference.
They lost their starting left guard last year Chris Reed. He is now backing up Quenton Nelson with the Blue and White.
Taking all of that into account though, and the fact that Kwity Paye, DeForest Buckner, and Julian Blackmon all did not practice, then add EJ Speed getting shaken up today, the Colts had themselves a pretty sharp afternoon.
Here are my big takeaways:
1) The Linebackers Feasted Against Sam Darnold
What’s the first thing you need to do against a guy that is trying to get comfortable in a new situation? Make his life as difficult as possible.
That’s exactly what Leonard, Bobby Okereke, and Speed (until going down) did. The defensive line set the tone even without Buckner on a shaky O-line matchup; Then the LB’s went to work.
On a very underrated note, Okereke may be having the best camp of any Colts defensive player. He had three interceptions coming into today and was able to at least slow down McCaffrey. (We’ll get to him later).
2) The Defensive Backs Looked Really Sharp
The first two key points are very complimentary. When you have a running back like Carolina does in McCaffrey, it makes your wide receiver core even more dangerous.
That’s exactly why an early season match-up at Tennessee is so spooky with Julio Jones coming into town.
But back to the Panthers.
D.J. Moore and Robby Anderson is a really solid 1-2 punch. Especially add to the fact that Darnold had a prior relationship with Anderson in New York.
But today, both Moore and Anderson looked very ordinary. That’s credit to guys like Kenny Moore, George Odum, and especially Rock Ya-Sin.
I get it, Ya-Sin had a bad track record last season. But he really stepped up against Moore. For that what means for your fantasy team, I can’t speculate. Ya-Sin went right at him though.
To note, Odum had the lone big interception of the day… but it came against Will Grier. Grier, who started against the Colts in 2019 and in turn threw three picks and got sacked five times, lobbed one up about 35 yards down field on a lollipop throw.
Odum was all over it.
Grier is splitting time behind Darnold along with former Colt and Houston Roughnecks XFL stud PJ Walker. Depending on how much Darnold plays Sunday, Walker could cause some problems if Buckner still isn’t around.
3) Christian McCaffrey is a Different Animal
And here it is. What else can you say about this guy.
You know that saying in baseball where the ball sounds different coming off a specific guy’s bat? Turn that analogy into football and you’ve got yourself a perfect way to describe McCaffrey.
There’s a reason the man got paid 64 million dollars.
Thankfully this is a preseason game on Sunday. Because even though injuries de-railed his 2020, he’s due to explode again this year. Darnold prays on the side of his bed every night that he has this dude to hand the ball off to; And probably because Adam Gase isn’t his coach anymore.
Sunday will be very interesting to see the former Stanford standout get his first big reps fully healthy again.
4) Kemoko Turay is a Force
This is more of an observation from the last couple days.
Even more so than Paye, Turay is the fastest Colt off the edge during this camp. Now to be fair, he has terrorized a bunch of backup left tackles.
But this week is imperative for him. It’s an opportunity to take that next step against somebody else than his own teammates.
It’s one thing to torch Sam Tevi from the edge, it’s another to do it consistently against others.
—
Let’s see what Friday has to offer between these two.
There have already been some chippy moments too. For the full report of what happened with Jacob Eason and Sam Ehlinger today, check out what KB had to say!
