Colts plan to experiment a little with Jacoby Brissett over final two games

Joel A. Erickson | Indianapolis Star

INDIANAPOLIS — The morning after an ugly loss in New Orleans eliminated the Colts from the playoffs, Jacoby Brissett sat down in Frank Reich’s office for a long, long talk.

About the good. About the bad.

About where Brissett goes from here in the final two games of the season. No longer able to battle for a playoff spot, the Colts still believe there is plenty of value in this week’s game against Carolina and the season finale in Jacksonville — a chance to experiment.

To see if there is another way to unlock the best in Brissett.

“We have two games, that’s really an opportunity for him to work to get better,” Reich said. “But really for (offensive coordinator) Nick (Sirianni) and I and the rest of the offensive staff to say, ‘Hey, we’ve got two games. Might we try a couple things, experiment with one or two things? Let us learn, let us learn Jacoby.”

Brissett completed 64.8 percent of his passes for 1,649 yards, 14 touchdowns, three interceptions and a 99.7 quarterback rating in the first half of the season. In the second half, he’s completing just 58.5 percent of his throws, picking up 1,012 yards, four touchdowns, three interceptions and a 77.9 passer rating.

At times, he’s been indecisive in the pocket and held the ball too long. His passer rating has fallen in the fourth quarter and his accuracy has fallen off in the past couple of weeks.

Reich wants to use the final two games to look for ways to get Brissett back on track.

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“Maybe there’s something that we haven’t been doing that is good for him, so we’ll look at some alternative schemes, introduce one or two new thoughts in the next two weeks,” Reich said. “Not major things, you’re probably not going to notice it just by the eye, but it could be a philosophical thing, it could be small little sudden things we do in the way we call our plays, the way we check our plays.”

There also might be certain parts of the playbook that haven’t been turned to quite as much this season, and the Colts could choose to go to that well a little more often.

Indianapolis has tried to tailor the offense around Brissett’s strengths, and adjusted it to account for the repeated loss of personnel at the skill positions, but as the Colts have struggled to score points, it’s clear there is still something to be uncovered.

“I have one subtle thing in mind that I obviously don’t want to share for game-planning reasons,” Reich said. “It would be maybe something philosophically, and it could couple subtleties of things off playbooks or maybe things that are in, but we haven’t emphasized that maybe we need to emphasize a little bit more and see how we respond as an offense.”

When they met Tuesday morning, Reich had a few ideas.

Brissett had a few of his own.

“A few small things that I thought were good suggestions,” Reich said.

For Brissett and Reich, for Luck and Reich before him, that give-and-take is nothing unusual, part of the relationship between the man who designs the offense and the man in charge of running it.

According to Brissett, the meeting he had with Reich on Tuesday morning wasn’t exactly out of the ordinary; it’s something the head coach and quarterback do often, something he goes through with offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni and Marcus Brady as often as possible.

“All the time,” Brissett said. “That’s part of the week-in, week-out of an NFL game plan, is seeing what the other team does and bouncing stuff off of each other.”

The Colts have at least one key weapon on hand to help with any shifts they want to do.

Wide receiver T.Y. Hilton is finally healthy again after missing five of six games due to a calf injury, and Reich said on Wednesday that the veteran receiver’s playing time could rise in the final two games of the season.

Hilton, obviously, has a knack for running routes and adapting that is much more difficult for a younger player, and he’ll be able to handle any shifts, big or small, in stride. Having Hilton available gives Brissett a go-to receiver to count on.

And Hilton is open to the idea of the offense shifting a bit.

“Affect me?” Hilton said. “I don’t know, but I heard about the new stuff and I’m looking forward to it.”

Hilton didn’t have a hand in the changes, didn’t go to Reich himself and ask for a change after the coach admitted he wasn’t happy with how long it took him to get Hilton involved in New Orleans.

“I let them handle everything like that, but I know some of the new stuff they’re going to try, so that’ll be fun,” Hilton said. “You’ll notice it.”

Hopefully for the better.