Colts Complete Phase 2 of Training Camp
INDIANAPOLIS — The NFL adjustment to training camp practices proceeded this week to Phase 2, where teams can have workouts with players wearing helmets, but no contact nor team drills.
That means this week was devoted to individual drills, as Indianapolis Colts Frank Reich advised in a Wednesday Zoom video conference call.
The Colts plan to put on the shoulder pads for practice on Monday.
“Obviously, making a transition here from our strength and conditioning phase to phase-two practices,” Reich said. “We have two days of these. We’re able to go full-speed, wearing helmets. We’re not able to line up against each other, but we are able to go full-speed.
“Today was not a lot of team work, today was a lot of individual work, a lot of fundamentals and technique, every position by itself working on the details and the little fundamentals – the little techniques that go into execution and the big picture. It was really good work out there. We’ll do that today and tomorrow before we can line back up against each other. It’s a good chance for the guys to go full speed and to feel what that feels like on the football field – not just running sprints but playing football. Anxious to keep going – feel good about where we’re at.”
Reich explained the process more in a Colts.com interview.
“The COVID-19 pandemic led to a change in the way NFL teams are holding their respective training camps this year,” he said. “The NFL and the NFLPA agreed to make the first couple weeks of camp more of an abbreviated offseason workout program, in which strength and conditioning work is mainly the focus in Week 1, and then the action picks up a little bit more in Week 2, where it more closely resembles an actual practice with guys in helmets, but there's no contact and no team drills (anything with offense vs. defense, like 11-on-11s, 7-on-7s, 1-on-1s, etc.).
“So the last two days have mostly featured the offense on one field and the defense on the other working through individual and positional drills and techniques, with some special teams work thrown in there, too.”
A welcome sight was four-time Pro Bowl wide receiver T.Y. Hilton, who was cleared on Wednesday from the reserve/non-football injury (NFI) list. He encouraged a minor hamstring issue during conditioning. Hilton was leading wide-receiver drills and catching passes from new quarterback Philip Rivers, according to Colts.com.
Reich was asked about how the team must prepare for anything amid the Coronavirus pandemic, which has required an overhaul in facility safety protocols and guidelines, including daily COVID-19 testing.
“That’s why I think it’s so important to have core fundamentals and principles that you believe in because when you have those – while everything else can be changing, circumstances are going to be changing (and) what holds us together, what kind of grounds us are those underlying principles that we always talk about,” the coach said. “That’s the continuity that even when there’s a change to schedule, we’re not changing the principles. We’re not changing the foundation. We have continuity and familiarity in those core things, and then we adjust and adapt as needed. You’re right ‘Chap’ (Mike Chappell), you do have to be flexible and I think our guys have handled that very well and our coaches.”
Reich understands the approach well from his playing days as a longtime NFL backup quarterback.
“Yeah, you’re one play away and you never know when that’s going to be,” he said. “You have to stay focused. You have to be able to adjust. You have to be able to adjust on your feet and think quickly, so that’s what we’re trying to do.”
(Phillip B. Wilson has covered the Indianapolis Colts for more than two decades and authored the 2013 book 100 Things Colts Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. He’s on Twitter @pwilson24, on Facebook at @allcoltswithphilb and @100thingscoltsfans, and his email is phillipbwilson24@yahoo.com.)
