The Colts have a secret weapon up their sleeve for 2024 that many around the NFL have forgotten about
The Indianapolis Colts are expected to have more firepower on the offensive side of the ball this season. With second-year QB Anthony Richardson back under center fully recovered from his shoulder injury last season. As well as the addition of their 2024 2nd-round pick, Adonai Mitchell. But there's one more player who didn't play a single […]
The Indianapolis Colts are expected to have more firepower on the offensive side of the ball this season.
With second-year QB Anthony Richardson back under center fully recovered from his shoulder injury last season. As well as the addition of their 2024 2nd-round pick, Adonai Mitchell.
But there's one more player who didn't play a single snap last season who could elevate the Colts offense.
That player is TE Jelani Woods. The Colts drafted Woods with the 73rd pick in the 3rd round of the 2022 NFL Draft. His rookie season with the team was chaotic, to say the least. Woods saw the team have three different starting QBs throughout his rookie year. None of them found any real success in Matt Ryan, Nick Foles, and Sam Ehlinger.
Woods ended his rookie season catching 25 passes for 312 yards and three touchdowns. And many were excited to see Woods' second NFL season in 2023 with the expectation that he'd take a significant leap. Unfortunately, Woods wouldn't log a single snap during his second season due to a lingering hamstring injury keeping him out all Training Camp and the regular season.
Woods is now healthy and has been a part of the team's early stage offseason programming, which has been his first real chance to show the team's new offensive staff under head coach Shane Steichen what he can do on the field.
His upside as a pass catcher is exciting to project his possible role in the offense this upcoming year. He showed at the 2022 NFL Scouting Combine how special of an athlete he is; at the time of his testing, he earned the highest RAS score of any TE in NFL history.
The Colts have a lot of intriguing players in their TE room for the upcoming season: Kylen Granson, Will Mallory, and, of course, Woods. But no player in the room has as much upside as a pass catcher as Woods does. He had plenty of flashes as a rookie, even with terrible QB play. Now, he will get the chance to impress the new coaching staff and potentially become one of Richardson's favorite targets in the passing game.
Woods recently spoke with the media about missing his entire sophomore season and how he found a way to still learn and improve though he wasn't playing.
"Even though I was hurt, I was in the locker room; I was in every meeting. After practice and during practice, though I'm not playing, I'm still asking questions on the field. Everything right now is just easy; it's just more physical, and now it's just actually doing it. Compared to mentally having to prepare, that's one thing that's really good right now. I'm being able to fly around easy be myself, and just have fun for the most part"
If Woods can show significant improvement, he could be a true X-factor for the Colts offense. And he could help make Richardson job at QB that much easier. It's a unique situation, for sure. But to me, it seems the Colts could have a secret weapon up their sleeves in Woods. And if it works out, most NFL teams won't even see it coming.
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