Packers-Colts Joint Practice: Promising defensive front performance among five takeaways from training camp

Teams play a preseason game on Saturday

Destin Adams, Wendell Ferreira
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The Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts had a joint practice on Thursday ahead of their preseason game on Saturday. Usually, coaches prefer these practices, because it’s a more controlled environment to test what they want to see.

Packers writer Wendell Ferreira and Colts writer Destin Adams bring us the takeaways from the activity in Indianapolis.

Packers front dominates struggling Colts o-line

One-on-ones are not fair to defensive players, because it’s too easy to throw without any pressure. When pressure was allowed, well, the Packers applied a lot of it. The defensive front had a lot of success over a strong Colts offensive line. Some examples: Rashan Gary beat Braden Smith, and Lukas Van Ness continued his improved performance beating Bernhard Raimann. Van Ness was active for the entire activity.

Defensive tackles Colby Wooden and Karl Brooks also generated pressures from the interior, and off-ball linebackers Quay Walker and Ty’Ron Hopper also got home on blitz calls. It was five total sacks in the first team period.

The performance upfront helped the secondary, creating opportunities for some turnovers—Keisean Nixon had an interception, and Javon Bullard forced a fumble. Among the backups, Isaiah Simmons and Johnathan Baldwin also had picks.

The Colts’ offensive line has two new starters this season, and the expectation is that Tanor Bortolini and Matt Goncalves will man those spots. Indy’s offensive line looked outmatched against the Packers’ on Thursday, and it hurt the Colts offense throughout the day. Hopefully for the Colts, they will be able to grow from this poor outing and it’s not a sign of things to come during the season. Because no matter who the team names as the starter, they will struggle if they are playing behind the offensive line that was out there.

Packers (lack of) available wide receivers

Romeo Doubs was expected to practice at first, but the back issue from Tuesday’s practice lingered and he wasn’t available. Doubs joined a long list of Packers’ wide receivers handling some type of injury: Christian Watson (ACL), Dontayvion Wicks (ankle), and rookie Savion Williams (undisclosed).

With all those absences, the available group to practice had first-round rookie Matthew Golden and a bunch of depth pieces: Malik Heath, Mecole Hardman, Cornelius Johnson, Julian Hicks, Will Sheppard, Isaian Neyor, and Kawaan Baker. The last three have been added over the past month, exactly to give the roster more options to handle so many problems at one position.

Quarterback Jordan Love (left thumb), safeties Xavier McKinney (calf) and Zayne Anderson (knee), cornerback Nate Hobbs (knee), edge defender Collin Oliver, and guard John Williams didn’t practice either. Oliver, Williams, and Christian Watson are still on the physically unable to perform list.

Matthew Golden did his part, though, beating Colts cornerbacks (including Charvarius Ward) during one-on-ones.

Adonai Mitchell continues to impress

If the Colts were to give an award out for the star of training camp, second-year wide receiver Adonai Mitchell would be the heavy favorite to receive it. Throughout camp, he’s consistently made plays, whether that be in one-on-ones or during team sessions. That continued versus the Packers in joint practice on Thursday. He looks ready to take a big step forward during his second season. We just need to see him use this training camp success and implement it during the regular season as well.

Packers’ run block is a concern

Last season, the Packers were 22nd in PFF run block grade and 23rd in ESPN’s run block win rate. Even though head coach Matt LaFleur is good at scheming up run concepts and Josh Jacobs is an elite running back, blocking has been a problem.

The Packers moved Elgton Jenkins from left guard to center, signed Aaron Banks, and allowed Josh Myers to walk in part because of that. So far, though, the results have been mixed at best. It was to be expected that the Packers would have some problems with the passing offense due to injuries, but it was fairly competent. However, the unit couldn’t generate holes—the best runs came with misdirections.

For an offense that relies on the run game to be solid and create easier passing lanes, Green Bay needs to be more consistent upfront.

Anthony Richardson outshines Daniel Jones, but still struggles

Early into practice, it appeared Richardson was in store for a big day. He was sharp during one-on-ones and had multiple solid plays during his first 11-on-11 session. As the day went on, though, his performance got a bit rocky.

Consistency has been one of his biggest issues in the NFL, and that was also the case on Thursday. He still outshined Daniel Jones, but neither quarterback was good enough to give the Colts offense much to write home about.

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