The Indianapolis Colts didn’t hand Deion Burks anything when they brought him in as a seventh-round pick. That’s exactly why his camp path is so interesting.
With Michael Pittman Jr. gone to the Pittsburgh Steelers this offseason, Indianapolis opened up cap space but also created a hole in a passing game that had long leaned on a trusted target. Chris Ballard didn’t bring in a clean one-for-one answer.
Nick Westbrook-Ikhine is in the mix, but he has never been a big producer. That leaves Burks with a real opening to push for a role, and maybe more.
Burks comes in as a small receiver at 5-foot-9 and 190 pounds, but his game has a few traits that can travel. At Oklahoma and Purdue, he showed he could move around.
In 2024, he was mostly used in the slot. In 2025, he spent 78 percent of his time on the outside.
That kind of flexibility matters, especially for a rookie trying to carve out a spot.
He also brings reliable hands. Over his last two seasons, Burks was targeted 128 times and dropped only four passes.
When the ball is catchable, he tends to finish the play. That should play well with the Colts and Daniel Jones, especially compared with the quarterbacks Burks dealt with at Oklahoma in 2024 and 2025 and at Purdue from 2021 through 2023.
The bigger question for Indianapolis is whether Burks can keep showing up in the biggest spots. He did it against Michigan in 2025, catching seven of 12 targets for 101 yards in the Sooners’ second game. He did it again in the College Football Playoff against Alabama, where he posted a season-high 107 yards and a touchdown on seven catches in nine targets.
That production came against top competition, and that has to matter for a player trying to survive the grind of OTAs and training camp. For Burks, there won’t be any quiet days.
Every rep has to look like Michigan. Every target has to look like Alabama.
And he brings more than just quickness and polish. Burks was timed at 4.3 in the 40-yard dash and posted a 42 1/2-inch vertical leap.
At 69 inches tall, that vertical is two-thirds of his actual height. For a late-round pick trying to force his way into the Colts’ receiver picture, that kind of athletic profile gives him a real shot to make noise.
In Other News...
Colts Enter Camp With One Injury Problem Fans Feared Most
Training camp opens July 29 with the Colts carrying more injury questions than they would like at this stage of the summer. Daniel Jones is working back from an Achilles tendon tear, DeForest Buckner is returning from neck surgery, and Charvarius Ward is also managing a back issue, leaving Indianapolis with several important players still trying to get fully right before the real ramp-up begins.
Alec Pierce adds another layer to the concern. The wideout is recovering from ankle surgery and has not yet resumed football activities, which makes his early-camp status worth watching closely as the Colts sort through their health picture. For a team that needs stability as camp starts, the biggest issue may be simply getting enough of its core pieces on the field at the same time. [Read more 🡒]
Colts Fans Just Got An Uncomfortable Ranking Of Their Top Trade Assets
Every offseason trade-deadline conversation eventually turns into a cold-eyed inventory of what a team could actually get back for its best players, and the Colts are no exception. A recent valuation exercise looked at Laiatu Latu, Quenton Nelson, Jonathan Taylor and Tyler Warren through the usual lenses of age, production, contract control and positional value, then tried to put a market price on each one.
The exercise is useful precisely because it underscores the downside: moving any of those names would almost certainly leave Indianapolis worse off on the field. Latus pass-rush upside, Nelsons quality at a low-value position, Taylors still-real appeal and Warrens long-term promise all make them intriguing assets in theory, but the kind of return they could command is only part of the story. The harder question for the Colts is whether any short-term gain would be worth giving up core talent that still matters to the roster. [Read more 🡒]
Colts Camp Opens With Ballard And Steichen Under Real Pressure
The Colts are heading into camp with the kind of cautious optimism that usually comes only after a messy year and a quiet offseason. The biggest moves were internal, with Daniel Jones back on a two-year deal and Alec Pierce re-signed, while the front office largely bet on continuity instead of chasing splashy outside additions. That leaves Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen at the center of everything, because this season is going to be judged less by what they said in the spring than by whether the roster can finally hold together long enough to matter.
Bleacher Reports one-word read on the mood was wishful, which fits a team that still sees a path forward but knows how narrow it is. The Colts have enough talent and enough reasons to believe, but they also enter camp with several key players working back from injury and the kind of pressure that follows when expectations keep outrunning results. For Ballard and Steichen, the margin for error is thin, and the early weeks of camp will say plenty about whether this is a real reset or just another hopeful start. [Read more 🡒]