WESTFIELD, Ind. - The Colts still have 24 days before they kick off the 2026 regular season against the Baltimore Ravens at Lucas Oil Stadium.
That's both a short amount of time for players and one that feels frustratingly long for fans. You mean we still have to wait more than three weeks until there's real football?
But training camp, as always, provided an avalanche of things to notice over the course of 11 regular practices, three joint practices and one preseason game. Behind the scenes, the Colts have spent countless hours in meetings and walkthroughs at Grand Park, too.
And out of the heavy lift of training camp, five main storylines have emerged:
Daniel Jones looks just fine.
Something wide receiver Josh Downs said the day Colts players reported to training camp proved to be the defining storyline out of Westfield over the last few weeks.
"We were in Florida a couple weeks ago throwing," Downs said, "and I actually like forgot he had got injured before because he looks so good out there."
Sometimes, you see a quote like this and question if it's hyperbole. But, at the end of camp, it's clear there was no hyperbole in Downs' assessment: Jones looked like the version of himself that quarterbacked the Colts to have the NFL's top offense and an 8-2 record at the halfway point of 2025.
Jones' mobility looked almost entirely unaffected by the Achilles' injury he sustained on Dec. 7, 2025. He was able to complete play-action rollouts with the requisite athleticism to keep a front seven honest. When he was pressured – often by defensive end Laiatu Latu – he was able to scurry away and keep plays alive. And when he took off to scramble, he looked plenty athletic and more than fast enough, even if he admitted he's not quite back to his pre-injury top speed.
Then again, the Colts' offense isn't built around Jones' ability to scramble: In 2025, he scrambled on only 8.6 percent of his dropbacks, seventh-lowest among regular starting quarterbacks. The Colts' offense, instead, is built around Jones' ability to get it into the right plays and then throw with top-shelf timing and accuracy.
(It's also built around Jonathan Taylor, of course.)
And what Jones showcased throughout three weeks of training camp practice looked awfully familiar, if you're remembering the highest of highs this offense reached last year. The Colts returned from Berlin having scored on 57 of 99 possessions, an outrageous rate (57.6 percent) that was easily the highest in the NFL.
So when everyone from Owner & CEO Carlie Irsay-Gordon to general manager Chris Ballard to head coach Shane Steichen talked this offseason about trying to replicate that first-half success, it certainly looked possible throughout training camp thanks to the way Jones played.
Signing Keenan Allen didn't have anything to do with Alec Pierce remaining on PUP.
While Pierce didn't participate in training camp, there's no panic coming from Ballard or the Colts there. The plan has been, and remains, to have Pierce available for Week 1 – which, again, is in 24 days,
Instead, signing the 34-year-old Allen – who could pass both Reggie Wayne and Marvin Harrison in career receptions this season – was about filling a need within the Colts' offense.
Allen's 2025 stats with the Los Angeles Chargers (122 targets, 81 receptions, 777 yards, four touchdowns, 49 first downs) are eerily similar to those of ex-Colts wideout Michael Pittman Jr. (111 targets, 80 receptions, 784 yards, seven touchdowns, 47 first downs). And while the Colts' offense was always going to evolve after Pittman was traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers in March – with Downs getting more snaps in 12 personnel, for starters – adding Allen should help Steichen be more versatile in game-planning for specific opponents.
Meaning: The Colts now have the personnel to lean into more 12 personnel (one running back, two tight ends, two receivers) one week and shift the dial toward more 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end, three receivers) the next week. When every pass-catcher is an established threat and brings a different flavor to a passing game, it becomes extremely difficult for defenses to account for everyone who's out in a route.
"I've always looked at it like putting together a basketball team, right? You've got those different body types and sizes," assistant general manager Ed Dodds said. "You got a point guard, which (can be) Josh Downs, and then you got a small forward, a power forward. I mean, that's what you're trying to do because there's different plays for every guy. They're scheming it up for different people and different situations, and you want to have those different body types and not just all the same guy."
Laiatu Latu was one of the stars of training camp. Can he carry it over to the regular season?
Here's a stat: Only 10 defensive ends had more total pressures than Latu's 62 in 2025, per Next Gen Stats, but his 8.5 sacks ranked 20th in the NFL.
Over the last few weeks, though, there have been some encouraging signs Latu can close that pressure-to-sack gap.
The first sign comes from Latu's own development. He focused this offseason on bulking up his upper body and improving his get-off time at the snap, which at an average of 0.89 seconds last year was the 53rd-fastest among pass rushers with at least 200 rush snaps.
"When I look back at it, it's tenths of a second," Latu said.
But the combination of Latu getting off the ball faster – he's had a few eye-popping players where he's exploded off the snap to create pressure in camp – with arguably the most talented secondary in the NFL should create more opportunities for the 2024 first-round pick to hit opposing quarterbacks.
"They're out there clamping up (receivers), making the quarterback hitch or keep it for a second or two," Latu said. "We're gonna get there."
Justin Walley and Cam Taylor-Britt look like real additions to the Colts' defense.
Walley jumped in front Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Drake London on a pass from quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and snagged it for a pick-six near the end of Wednesday's joint practice. It was a fitting end-of-camp moment for the 2025 third-round pick, who started strong in July and didn't drop off through the dog days of August.
"Walley's a playmaker, and it's great to have him back coming off the injury," Steichen said. "He's been making plays all camp."
A year ago, Walley was tracking to start as a rookie before he sustained a torn ACL in a joint practice with the Baltimore Ravens. For a second-year player with exactly zero snaps in the NFL, what Walley's been able to do should not be taken for granted.
"Until you line up against somebody else, you never know how your body's going to react," Walley said on this week's Colts Show podcast. "The only question I had for myself was how I would react to live bodies in front of me. But getting back out here, it's been like riding a bike."
Walley is the unproven member of the Colts' cornerback trio, and offenses may look to avoid Sauce Gardner and Charvarius Ward Sr. on the outside while testing Walley, who remains unproven to the rest of the league. Those offenses, though, might want to proceed with caution.
One other development at cornerback has been the steady play of Taylor-Britt, who's filled in with Ward (back) missing the last week and a half. Taylor-Britt has had proven production not just in the NFL, but in Anarumo's defense: From 2023-2024 with the Cincinnati Bengals, he totaled 27 passes defensed (seven interceptions, 20 break-ups), tied for the eighth-highest total in the league during that span.
Steichen said Taylor-Britt's toughness has jumped off the practice fields at Grand Park. And if the Colts do need a fill-in for Ward or Gardner at any point this year (outside of Week 1, when Taylor-Britt is suspended), Anarumo shouldn't have to alter the way he calls his defense much.
"He's been physical at the line of scrimmage with receivers, which I love that," Steichen said. "I love his energy. And I love what he brings to our team."
There's no clarity at linebacker yet, but a few players are stepping up there.
The Colts will probably roll into their final preseason game Aug. 29 – in which Steichen has indicated starters could play – without having settled on their two starting linebackers. There's a chance the Colts don't figure out their starting MIKE and WILL until we get into the season, but Anarumo has planned for this and instead has looked to how to use the individual skillsets of each of his linebackers.
Since the start of camp, the Colts have rolled through combinations of CJ Allen, Austin Ajiake, Bryce Boettcher, Jaylon Carlies, Akeem Davis-Gaither and West Weeks with their first-team defense. Boettcher and Carlies have flashed as of late, with Boettcher playing fast and physical against the run and Carlies showing range against the pass.
Allen returned to practice over the weekend and will compete to earn more snaps at the MIKE, while Davis-Gaither's veteran experience and knowledge of Anarumo's defense are important to the Colts' defense. Ajiake got into games last year in certain situations, too.
The larger takeaway here, though, is while the Colts may not yet have a set duo of starters at linebacker, one very well could emerge in the coming weeks. And even if it doesn't, Anarumo is confident he has enough talent to work with to get the most out this position group.
"We've got great competition," Anarumo said. "I think it's going to continue until it sorts itself out. But at the end of the day, I think we're going to have a lot of guys in that room that play for us this year, in different type of roles."
