INDIANAPOLIS - Saturday’s Colts camp session had the feel of a grind, with the team back in full pads on a steamy morning as the final stretch of morning practices arrived. And on a day when the wide receiver room was again short-handed, rookie edge rusher Laiatu Latu made his presence felt.
Latu was one of the biggest standouts from Day 8, logging a sack and applying steady pressure throughout practice. He also nearly added another sack on the final drive, beating Jalen Travis, and it was the most noticeable he’s been all camp. With the Colts now into the second half of camp and four straight full-padded practices in the books, Lou Anarumo said he was pleased with Latu and others for how they ramped things up.
Daniel Jones kept things moving despite missing three of his top five wideouts. He finished unofficially 11-of-15 and helped put together a clean field goal drive to close practice, with Blake Grupe hitting from 28 yards with 1:15 left, the ball on the offense’s own 35-yard line and two timeouts in hand.
Jones did take at least one sack in that early red-zone period, and Latu had a strong case for it. After practice, Sauce Gardner praised Jones and called him a “top-5 QB” right now based on what he’s seen at Grand Park.
The quarterback reps behind Jones were split up in a different way. Riley Leonard handled two of the three periods with the second team and also finished with a field goal drive, capped by Grupe from 55 yards.
Leonard went 5-of-9 on the day and turned in his best throw on the opening red-zone period, dropping a beautiful in-stride ball to Coleman Owen for a touchdown. Anthony Richardson Sr. got only five team reps without the 2-minute period to close practice, going 2-of-3 with an interception.
Robert Carter Jr. picked him in the end zone after undercutting a Deion Burks route. Jim Bob Cooter said afterward that the Colts need more consistency from their second and third team offensive units.
The receiver injuries continue to shape everything. Josh Downs was out with a groin issue and missed practice for the first time in camp, adding to a group already missing Alec Pierce, who is on PUP with a calf injury. With so many bodies sidelined, the Colts leaned heavily on Ashton Dulin and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, and it showed in the way Jones spread the ball around - seven of his 11 completions went to running backs or tight ends.
At linebacker, the rotation kept rolling with CJ Allen still out with a hamstring injury. Anarumo said it’s possible the Colts keep rotating linebackers even into the regular season, using more specific roles on game day rather than leaning on two players for every snap. Veteran Akeem Davis-Gaither had one of the cleaner defensive plays of the day, getting a batted-down ball intended over the middle for Anthony Gould.
The offensive line also looked settled in a way it hadn’t earlier in camp. For the first time, the starting five appeared to go through a full practice together: Bernhard Raimann at left tackle, Quenton Nelson at left guard, Tanor Bortolini at center, Matt Goncalves at right guard and Jalen Travis at right tackle.
That group stayed intact until the final play, when Travis false started and was replaced by Luke Tenuta. The continuity was a notable development, and it seems to end any real right guard competition from rookie Jalen Farmer.
Kicking work was split for the weekend, with Grupe handling Saturday and Spencer Shrader set for Sunday. Grupe went 7-of-8, drilling both of his end-of-drive attempts and making kicks from 25, 28, 33, 42, 48, 54 and 55 yards.
His only miss came from 58 yards and struck the left upright. For camp, Grupe is now 27-of-30, while Shrader sits at 16-of-22.
The league’s announcement on Friday also carried a future penalty for one of the Colts’ cornerbacks. Cam Taylor-Britt was suspended for the first game of the 2026 season under the NFL’s personal conduct policy after last year’s arrest for reckless driving and driving with a suspended license.
He can still take part in camp and preseason games, but he’ll miss the team’s opener on September 13th. Taylor-Britt has been the first corner up in camp and has also shown up in bigger defensive back sub packages, and his familiarity with Anarumo from Cincinnati remains part of the picture.
Right now, he would be fourth on the cornerback depth chart.
The opening offense on Saturday lined up with Daniel Jones at quarterback, Jonathan Taylor at running back, Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, Anthony Gould and Ashton Dulin at receiver, Tyler Warren at tight end, and the line of Raimann, Nelson, Bortolini, Goncalves and Travis. On defense, the first unit featured Laiatu Latu, Grover Stewart, Arden Key and Colby Wooden up front, Austin Ajiake and Akeem Davis-Gaither at linebacker, Justin Walley, Charvarius Ward Sr. and Sauce Gardner at corner, and Cam Bynum with A.J. Haulcy at safety.
A few other names popped on Thursday as well, including Coleman Owen, Cam Bynum, Will Mallory and Mekhi Rodgers.
Not participating Saturday were Alec Pierce, Hunter Wohler, CJ Allen, Laquon Treadwell, D.J. Giddens and Josh Downs, all dealing with injury issues listed by the team. The Colts are scheduled to practice again Sunday morning before heading into the next phase of camp with joint work at New England on Tuesday and a preseason game there on Thursday.
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