Now, the goal for guys like Michael Pittman Jr., Kenny Moore II, Julian Blackmon and Tyquan Lewis – among others – is to turn the Colts’ emphasis on continuity in the spring into victories in the fall and winter. And that process begins in the summer with Thursday’s first training camp practice, which kicks off at 10 a.m. at Grand Park in Westfield.
The upshot to all that continuity on both sides of the ball is a quicker acclimation period to camp, which the Colts see as allowing them to maximize the amount of quality work they’re getting during practices, meetings and walkthroughs over the next few weeks.
“It’ll be very important for us to have shared language,” cornerback Kenny Moore II said. “The IQ, the vision, the standard — everybody already knows the standard, so it won’t be us taking a couple steps back to try to re-teach a new guy or a free agent, whoever it is. We already know who it’s going to be. So from there we gotta stay healthy and follow it from there.”
On offense, the Colts return their Week 1 starting quarterback from the prior season for the first time since 2016 – the rookie year for center Ryan Kelly, the longest-tenured member of the Colts.
“I think we saw in the offseason building what we already worked on and what we did so well last year, I think it’s just build on that,” Kelly said. “… And I think just taking a deeper dive into what our offense can be. Obviously with Anthony (Richardson) there, the offense changes a lot opposed to last year when he wasn’t there. So just build on that and getting closer as a team and building on something special.”
For these returning players, too, the sting of how the 2023 season ended – with a failed fourth-and-short conversion 15 yards shy of the Houston Texans’ end zone – has been an undercurrent, but not a focus, to their offseason motivation.
“It definitely hurt,” Buckner said. “We were a couple plays away from winning…
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