The Colts' wrapped up their 2022 offseason program on Thursday with the final practice of this week's mandatory veteran minicamp.
- The Colts this week did some full-speed seven-on-seven work as well as some slower-paced 11-on-11 in addition to individual drills.
- The goal for the last three days – and since the start of the offseason program in April – was to methodically work toward building a foundation on offense, defense and special teams ahead of training camp next month.
- "I forgot how much I love this, how much you need this," head coach Frank Reich said. "We got so much done. It's amazing that you can play a season without doing that."
Quarterback Matt Ryan felt like he made significant progress in learning the offense and working with Reich on what plays and concepts he likes and doesn't like over the last few months.
- "Getting a feel for his philosophy as a coach and the things that he believes in, getting to know him as a person — you're not going to find a better person than him," Ryan said. "And I really feel like we've made a lot of good strides in the last few months in terms of getting on the same page and communicating."
- Reich, too, praised Ryan for his leadership, command and collaboration during the offseason program to help build a foundation with coaches and teammates ahead of training camp.
- "I think overall it has gone very smoothly," offensive coordinator Marcus Brady said. "Ups and downs as far as who we want to be, what we want to accomplish with the guys. We have younger receivers and we're just saying, 'What are they good at? What is Matt good at?' Going out there and getting the reps and then we are kind of tweaking here and there and see how we can get better."
The Colts will now break for about a month and a half before re-convening at Grand Park in Westfield for the start of training camp in late July.
- Ryan said he'll get together and throw with teammates in small groups – "I've only got one arm," he smiled – over the next few weeks to continue to set that foundation ahead of training camp.
- "We just accomplished step one, we did a good job on step one," Reich said. "But there's another step before training camp starts, that's the next six weeks. So take care of business, that's on each one of us individually. Really it's about being in shape. We don't need them to think about football other than getting in shape."
