Insider: 5 questions the Colts still have to answer

Zak Keefer | IndyStar

Show Caption Hide Caption IndyStar Sports Day podcast: Colts head into a long break IndyStar's Zak Keefer and Stephen Holder discuss where the Indianapolis Colts stand as they head into a summer break. Training camp is next, at the end of the July.

INDIANAPOLIS -- School’s out. The Indianapolis Colts have kicked off summer vacation. (The rookie class will be in town two more weeks.) Trips. Sights. Beaches. Family time. One last breath before football commands their schedule around the clock.

They’ll reconvene in Indianapolis in six weeks for training camp. Here are five questions they’ll have to answer when they do:

1. When will Andrew Luck be back on the field?

The quarterback says he’ll be fine. The owner says he’ll be fine. Doctors who know what they’re talking about say he’ll be fine.

But until Luck is back on the football field, throwing passes to T.Y. Hilton and Donte Moncrief and Jack Doyle, there will be a collective sense of anxiety lurking over this franchise. That’s the case anytime the franchise quarterback undergoes surgery on his throwing shoulder.

All signs point to a complete recovery for Luck in time for the 2017 season opener Sept. 10. Training camp, though, will be tricky. Luck’s workload will be closely monitored, and in limited action, it will be far more difficult for him to fine-tune his timing with his targets. There’s no guarantee he’s on the field when training camp begins, and no guarantee he’ll play in the preseason games.

It’s a waiting game at this point as Luck continues to rehabilitate. He’s got 12 weeks before the games count.

2. How much time will Clayton Geathers miss?

Speaking of injuries to watch, no Colts player remains a bigger question mark than Geathers, the bruising safety who ended last season on injured reserve and underwent neck surgery in March. The operation was the last resort. The rehab process is a long one. Geathers’ status, at this juncture, remains very much up in the air.

It’s unlikely he’ll be on the field for the start of training camp, and no guarantee he’ll even be ready for the first week of the season – a significant setback for an overhauled defense that could feature as few as two returning starters. Geathers was supposed to be one of them.



When pressed this spring if he believes he’ll be good to go come Week 1, Geathers paused several seconds before answering. It was telling.

“Ummm,” he said. “Yes. I feel very confident with what the doctors are saying and how it’s looking. I’m feeling positive about it.”

We’ll have to wait and see about that.

3. Who will shine in camp?

First-year General Manager Chris Ballard has preached competition since the minute he arrived in Indianapolis. “And if you preach it,” he likes to say, “you have to live it.” Time to live it.

Unlike in any previous training camp during the Chuck Pagano era, the Colts will determine as many as a dozen new starters under the July and August sun. The bulk of those spots will come on defense, a unit Ballard blew up in the offseason and re-tooled, primarily through free agency.

The defensive line figures to be among the more intriguing units to watch. New signee Johnathan Hankins has drawn rave reviews thus far, both from his teammates and coaches. Jabaal Sheard and John Simon figure to lead the outside linebackers unit. And no position appears as wide open as inside linebacker. Will Jon Bostic step into a starting role? Sean Spence? What about holdovers Antonio Morrison and Edwin Jackson?

There’s also the safety spot, which at this point – thanks to Geathers’ injury, and the fact that rookie first-round pick Malik Hooker has yet to hit the field – is hurting. Corner convert Darius Butler has held his own there in recent weeks, and Matthias Farley, for now, is sitting ahead of 2015 second-round pick T.J. Green on the depth chart. Will that hold through August?

4. Who will emerge as the Colts’ third receiver?

For the record, no one is supplanting Donte Moncrief as the No. 2 receiver. Not the way he looked this week in minicamp.

As for the third spot, this doesn’t seem as clear-cut as it once did. Phillip Dorsett, the team’s first-round pick in 2015, has all of three touchdowns in his first two seasons. He’s battled through inconsistent play and injuries – not to mention the constant perception that a 5-9 receiver was the last thing the Colts needed at that spot in the draft.

But that doesn’t matter now. What does: Dorsett needs a strong training camp. There’s no way around it. He needs to stay healthy, and needs to produce.

The new guy in town – 6-2 former Baltimore Raven Kamar Aiken – seems as motivated as ever to prove he deserves a spot in the rotation. A holdover from last year’s team – Chester Rogers – could surprise come camp. He’s been the most consistent of the three throughout this spring and summer and, echoing Ballard’s “open competition” sentiment, it won’t matter where you were drafted come final cuts. It matters what you’ve put on film. Thus far, Rogers has delivered.

Make no mistake: This is a very, very important training camp for Phillip Dorsett. He knows it. (Dorsett missed this week’s minicamp with a hamstring issue, he said, but said he’s “good to go” moving forward.)

“I’m not really trying to worry about where I got drafted or who’s (here),” Dorsett said this spring. “Just put your head down and grind and compete. That’s competition. I love competition.”

He’ll get plenty of it in camp.

5. The offensive line isn’t "fixed." But how much better is it?

Jim Irsay believes his offensive line is “fixed.” At least that’s what he told Colts season ticket holders last week at a town hall event.

It’s not. The evidence: Luck has been sacked a whopping 156 times in his first 70 NFL starts, and since his 2012 arrival he’s been hit more than 575 times, most in football. He’s also been hit as he’s thrown (50 times) more than any QB in football, according to Pro Football Focus.

But those statistics are in the past. Fixed? No. That doesn’t happen overnight.

Improving? Yes. The Colts young unit showed considerable growth over the course of 2016, slicing their sack number through the first eight games by more than half over the final eight. The core that former GM Ryan Grigson drafted – including Ryan Kelly, Joe Haeg, Le’Raven Clark and Denzelle Good – and Joe Philbin coached up figure to join Anthony Castonzo and Jack Mewhort to form the Colts’ offensive line of the future.

Clark appears to have an inside track on the right tackle job. He’s been there, without fail, throughout the spring and summer workouts. Haeg figures to start alongside him at right guard, and Kelly will be this team’s center for the next decade. Good, who missed this week’s minicamp with an injury, will be playing catch-up come training camp.

Coaches and players have discussed how much time the unit has spent together this spring, the hope being a built-in chemistry come the fall.

Will it pay off? We’ll find out in September.

Call IndyStar reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134. Follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.