WESTFIELD — The Colts were treated to a familiar sight in Sunday’s practice.
A sight Indianapolis sorely missed in the second half last season.
DeForest Buckner looked like the game-wrecking nightmare that he’s been for most of his career.
“Whenever Buck’s out there, you can feel him,” Colts head coach Shane Steichen said.
Buckner hasn’t been on the field as much as usual through the first nine practices of training camp. The Colts defensive captain’s season ended prematurely due to a herniated disc in his neck, an injury that forced Buckner to undergo surgery on New Year’s Eve to repair the issue. Indianapolis team doctors cleared Buckner right before the start of training camp, but the Colts coaches have been careful with him, limiting his participation in the first two weeks.
Under all the positive news, there have been questions about how the 32-year-old Buckner would recover from the worst injury of his career.
Buckner looked like himself in practice Sunday. Unleashed in one-on-one pass rush for the first time, Buckner beat Quenton Nelson with a gorgeous swim move at the snap, then followed it up with another swim off his initial move to blow past Matt Goncalves.
The momentum carried over to 11-on-11 work. Indianapolis ended practice by giving the No. 1 and No. 2 offenses 52 seconds to drive the length of the field, and Buckner gave the Colts offense all kinds of problems. Buckner beat Jalen Travis off the edge for a pressure early, came up with a “sack” of Daniel Jones on another play and made a key run stop on Taylor to force a 55-yard field goal attempt that Spencer Shrader hooked left.
Buy Colts tickets!
Next man up
Veteran cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt is emerging as a key piece for the Colts this season: The first man off the bench in case of an injury.
“Right now, he’s playing the nickel, he’s playing the corner, getting him all these valuable reps, because we’re looking for him to be the first guy to go in,” Colts secondary coach Chris Hewitt said. “He’s our third or fourth corner, however you want to slice it, dice it. He’s that guy.”
Taylor-Britt must serve a one-game suspension in the season opener stemming from the five days he spent in an Ohio jail for reckless driving earlier this year.
But it’s easy to see why Indianapolis likes the former second-round pick. Taylor-Britt made an acrobatic breakup of a sideline throw during the two-minute drill, then drove hard on a route over the middle to create another incompletion. Working out of the slot for most of the day because of an injury to starter Justin Walley, Taylor-Britt also teamed with Akeem Davis-Gaither for a “sack” of Jones.
Tough day for first team
The Indianapolis defense has made life difficult on the first-team offense with Downs and Alec Pierce out of the lineup.
Jones completed only 8 of 15 passes on the day, and he threw two interceptions, doubling his previous total for the entire training camp.
Neither interception appeared to be the fault of Jones. On the first, Jones tried to lead Nick Westbrook-Ikhine over the middle, but Westbrook-Ikhine briefly started to settle, leading to an off-balance effort that the veteran bobbled into the air, directly into the waiting hands of rookie strong safety A.J. Haulcy.
The second was even worse. Unable to find anything downfield, Jones tried to dump the ball off to Jonathan Taylor, only to have Taylor botch the catch, sending the ball up in the air and into the hands of free safety Camryn Bynum, who returned it for a touchdown.
The entire day was difficult for Jones. He took two sacks, nearly threw another interception when Sauce Gardner jumped a short route during the team’s two-minute drill and didn’t have many open receivers available. Making matters worse, most of the yardage on the two-minute drill came when linebacker Jaylon Carlies was flagged for pass interference on a ball to Tyler Warren down the sideline.
Backup QB battle
Anthony Richardson got a little extra work, completing 3 of 6 throws on the day.
Richardson made arguably his biggest play of training camp on the first play of the two-minute drill, firing a ball downfield to Deion Burks to get the Colts into field-goal range right away. Safety Trey Washington was flagged for pass interference on the next play, and then rookie running back Seth McGowan popped a 40-yard run for a touchdown to make the No. 2 offense successful.
Robert Carter Jr. broke up Richardson’s first pass of the day, and Jonathan Owens also made a breakup on a play where Richardson threw under pressure from Micheal Clemons.
Riley Leonard completed 3 of 4 passes in 11-on-11, hitting Eli Pancol for big yardage down the right sideline to beat Carter, then lofting a touchdown pass to Pancol a couple of snaps later.
Kicking competition
Shrader had another rough day.
Unable to shake the issues he’s had pulling kicks to the left, Shrader made kicks from 25, 33, 42 and 49 yards, but he also missed from 50 and 52, and two 55-yarders, pulling the ball wide left almost every time. Blake Grupe, the other kicker in the competition, is 27 of 30 in practices so far; Shrader is 20 of 30 as he tries to recover from the torn ACL and MCL that prematurely ended his season.
Roll call
Slot receiver Josh Downs sat out his second consecutive practice due to a groin injury the Colts consider minor.
“Downs ain’t serious at all,” Steichen said. “I think he might practice on Tuesday. We’ll just be smart with him.”
Walley did individual drills with the defensive backs, then sat out the rest of the practice.
“We’re just monitoring him,” Steichen said. “He had a little thing in practice, a little hamstring, but it wasn’t bad.”
Rookie linebacker CJ Allen, running back DJ Giddens, strong safety Hunter Wohler and wide receiver Laquon Treadwell have been out for a while due to hamstring injuries. Backup nose tackle Tim Smith returned to practice after missing a couple of days.
Pierce remains on the physically unable to perform list due to offseason ankle surgery.
Quick hitters
Defensive end Jaylahn Tuimoloau beat Luke Tenuta badly with a spin move in one-on-one pass rush. … Rookie defensive end George Gumbs blew past Jalen Travis during one-on-one pass rush drills, and he also produced a sack of Leonard later in the practice. … Veteran tight end Will Mallory dominated 7-on-7 drills with the second team, catching a deep ball over Jonathan Owens and under the coverage of Jaylon Jones. … Linebacker Devin Veresuk had a pass breakup during the developmental period. … Easton Stick threw a touchdown pass to Ben Nikkel to end a live period. … Cam Ball and Tim Smith appeared to get sacks of Stick.
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: DeForest Buckner looks like he’s all the way back from injury in Colts training camp
Reporting by Joel A. Erickson, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Joel A. Erickson, Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network
