WESTFIELD, Ind. – Emptying the notebook from the first nine practices of Colts training camp...
--Even without his top three wide receivers at times from 2025, the Colts' offense hasn't stagnated much during training camp. That's a credit to quarterback Daniel Jones and head coach Shane Steichen, who've consistently found answers to complete passes without wide receivers Michael Pittman Jr. (traded to Steelers), Alec Pierce (on PUP) and, during Saturday and Sunday's practices, Josh Downs (groin – an injury that Steichen said is not serious).
Jones' mobility has been a major talking point during camp, and with good reason – the 29-year-old has largely looked like himself on rollouts and scrambles, and hasn't looked limited eight months after undergoing surgery on a torn Achilles'. But maybe the bigger story here is that this offense still feels efficient – and at times explosive – even without those wideouts. We haven't seen a ton of balls hit the ground when Jones has been behind center in 11-on-11 and seven-on-seven.
This trend will be tested once the Colts get to Foxborough for a joint practice with the New England Patriots on Tuesday, and then for two joint practices with the Atlanta Falcons next week at Grand Park. How Jones looks against another team's defense, with different schemes, tendencies and personnel, will be instructive here. Getting Downs and Pierce back will certainly be a boost, especially Pierce, whose ability to stretch the field vertically outside the numbers will force opposing defenses to play differently.
But so far, Jones has had a solid camp – no matter who's been on the field with him.
--With DJ Giddens missing time with a hamstring injury, seventh-round rookie running back Seth McGowan has got plenty of run with the Colts' first- and second-team offense over the last few practices. And the Kentucky product has flashed a handful of times with those opportunities, like a breakaway dash to the end zone during Sunday's practice.
"The main goal is to get him out there, to get him in situations, stress him out a little bit, see how he reacts when he's tired, and every day it's a new challenge because there's something new that he has to learn from," running backs coach DeAndre Smith said. "But he's doing an excellent job in picking up things, doing a great job from from from the first part of the practice to the to walkthroughs in the end of the day just really really trying to get better. So I've been pleased with how he's been working."
How McGowan continues to handle pass protection – a learning curve every rookie running back has to navigate – will be key in determining his role within the Colts' offense. But he's shown some flashes he'll now look to carry over into a meaty portion of the preseason.
--Steichen on Sunday didn't shoot down the idea of the Colts adding another wide receiver.
"We're always looking and doing our research in that," Steichen said. "But I like the group we've got. Those guys are battling right now, so we'll see where that all goes."
Nick Westbrook-Ikhine and Ashton Dulin both will continue to get long looks on the outside, especially while Pierce remains on PUP. Westbrook-Ikhine, notably, is only two years removed from snagging nine touchdowns for the Tennessee Titans, while Dulin in a limited role averaged 17.5 yards per touch over the last two seasons.
--Tight end Tyler Warren's go-up-and-get-it catch on a vertical ball from Jones was a highlight of camp for the Colts' tight end room, but one guy to keep an eye on moving forward is Will Mallory. At the start of camp, general manager Chris Ballard mentioned Mallory as someone who could help fill in for the departure of Pittman, and the fourth-year tight end has made a handful of plays throughout camp. Mallory profiles more as an "F" (move) tight end, rather than an in-line "Y" like Mo Alie-Cox and Drew Ogletree, but as the Colts evolve their offense in 2026, he'll have a chance to carve out a larger role than he's had in the past.
--In a one-on-one period during Sunday's practice, center Tanor Bortolini absorbed a bull rush from hulking defensive tackle Grover Stewart. While plenty of attention has gone toward the right side of the Colts' offensive line – where guard Matt Goncalves and tackle Jalen Travis have been solid in camp – let's not forget Bortolini had a strong 2025 in his first year as a starter and is still a young player. Bortolini last year earned the third-highest Pro Football Focus grade (84.4) among centers in the NFL.
--Add defensive end Laiatu Latu to the Grand Park all-star roster so far. Latu told me back in the spring he focused on adding upper body strength in the offseason, and those gains have been noticeable. Also: Latu's quickness getting off the ball with burst at the snap hasn't diminished; he said he feels even a step quicker heading into 2026. If Latu is able to translate this growth into creating more pressure in the regular season, he'll have more opportunities to create sacks thanks to a lockdown secondary as quarterbacks shouldn't be able to throw quickly to open receivers all that frequently.
--Defensive tackle DeForest Buckner has come on strong as he's increased his workload throughout camp. On Sunday, he had two wins in one-on-one pass rushing drills, and then he generated pressure on Jones during an end-of-game 11-on-11 period. While Buckner has missed time over the last two seasons, when he's played, he's been his usual menacing self on the interior: His pressure rates over the last four years are 11.4 percent, 11.1 percent, 11.1 percent and 11.4 percent, all while he's dealt with a high rate of double teams.
"Whenever Buck is out there, you can definitely feel him," Steichen said. "It's great to get him out there getting some team reps. Again, monitoring him through training camp, where his body's at, but he feels good. He feels good where he's at."
--The most unsettled position group on the Colts right now is linebacker, where Austin Ajiake, CJ Allen, Bryce Boettcher, Jaylon Carlies, Akeem Davis-Gaither and West Weeks have all taken reps with the first-team defense during camp. This is intentional: Defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo is testing each player's ability to handle specific situations, which could lead to some mixing and matching at this spot into the regular season (think passing downs vs. standard downs vs. blitzes vs. coverage, etc.).
"We're going to be rolling those guys constantly until guys get healthy again and just kind of find out what best works," Anarumo said. "But I would envision that that group – we've got great competition. 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."
--We'll group the Colts' secondary together here, because the five guys atop the depth chart (Charvarius Ward Sr., Justin Walley, Sauce Gardner, Cam Bynum and AJ Haulcy) have collectively had strong showings in practice. But the Colts are going into 2026 with good depth at both corner and safety, with cornerbacks Cam Taylor-Britt and Mekhi Blackmon playing solidly and safeties Hunter Wohler (prior to his hamstring injury, which has sidelined him for the last few practices) and Jonathan Owens bringing good ball to the back end at safety.
The point here being: The more depth the Colts have in their secondary, the more versatile you may see Anarumo be with some of his week-to-week game plans during the season.
"I think any coach would tell you the more pieces that are interchangeable, the more we can do as coaches," Anarumo said. "And the players have shown us, especially back there, that they can do that."
--We've followed the Colts' kicking competition between Blake Grupe and Spencer Shrader pretty closely in our daily camp notebooks, but the presence of long snapper Luke Rhodes and holder/punter Rigoberto Sanchez shouldn't be discounted here. Rhodes and Sanchez have comprised the Colts' kicking battery since 2017 and are a well-oiled machine, one which special teams coordinator Brian Mason noted allows the Colts to get consistently clean evaluations of both Grupe and Shrader.
"You can expect that they're going to have a solid operation and it's going to be consistent at all times," Mason said. "... They know exactly what they need to do to be successful, so then you can spend more time focusing on the kickers and some different things that we need to do there, knowing that those guys are going to take care of their business."
