Gregg Doyel

gregg.doyel@indystar.com

The cameras were at his locker, but they weren’t there for Indianapolis Colts receiver Phillip Dorsett. No, the media were gathered around star T.Y. Hilton, spilling over into the nearby space. Into Phillip Dorsett’s space.

Dorsett saw them and led me toward a nearby corner, where we could talk. He understands his place in the local pecking order, at least for right now. He caught 18 passes last season. He scored one touchdown. He missed five games with a broken leg. He gets it.

“It doesn’t bother me,” Dorsett was telling me after the cameras left Hilton’s locker and headed to the opposite end of the locker room, toward rookie center Ryan Kelly or tight end Dwayne Allen or linebacker Robert Mathis or someone else. Anyone else.

Nor did it bother Dorsett when Hilton slipped a good-natured verbal knife into his back.

“Yo, Phil!” Hilton was teasing. “Where your cameras at, man?”

Dorsett broke into giggles, then got back to me.

“Where were we?” he said.

The insults a year ago, I said. You heard them, is my guess.

“Oh yeah,” he says. “I heard them.”

Colts punter Pat McAfee had procedure done on left knee

* * *

Well, we weren’t quiet about it. The Colts picked Dorsett in the first round of the 2015 NFL draft, and we didn’t understand it. Media, fans, even T.Y. Hilton, who offered up a grouchy “there’s nothing I can do about it” when asked about the pick.

Dorsett heard it.

“All of it,” he says, laughing.

Doyel: Colts' first-round draft pick just looks wrong

You remember the circumstances, right? The Colts had multiple needs entering the 2015 draft, none of them at receiver. They already had a game-wrecker there in Hilton, and a promising second-year player in Donte Moncrief. They also had made their biggest offseason signing at receiver, giving Andre Johnson a three-year, $21 million contract. Plus veteran Griff Whalen and CFL sensation Duron Carter.

With the 29th pick of the NFL draft, the Colts take … a receiver?

Boo, came the response. Booooooo.

“You hear it,” Dorsett says, “and you just want to go out and prove people wrong. It didn’t make me mad. I know what I’m capable of. I know what I can bring to this team.”

A vanity pick, a puzzling choice in 2015, Phillip Dorsett now finds himself a vital part of the 2016 Colts — one of the top three receivers on a depth chart that falls off a cliff after that.

There’s Hilton, Moncrief, Dorsett and then your best guess. Could be offseason pick-ups Josh Boyce or Brian Tyms (16 career catches, total; none last year). Maybe Quan Bray (zero catches).

One thing we know: Andrew Luck will throw the ball a lot. One thing we can assume: Phillip Dorsett figures to be a primary target.

“It’s something I always dreamed about,” he says. “It’s going to be a great season, I know, because of the way OTA’s are going. Andrew’s healthy and we’ve got a lot of stuff going on, a lot of stuff we’re putting in.

“You can’t really double anybody. We’ve got a lot of guys, a lot of weapons. Lot of people are going to be left one-on-one.”

Including the fastest receiver on the team. Maybe in the whole league.

* * *

Before returning to Indianapolis for offseason workouts, which got serious Tuesday with the first day of veteran minicamp, Phillip Dorsett needed to know.

His speed, understand? It’s his defining characteristic as a football player, the otherworldly speed that had the Colts picking him in the first round of the draft.

Dorsett made a huge catch in the third game of his rookie season, a game-saving touchdown as the Colts rallied past the Titans to avoid an 0-3 start, but he later missed five games with a broken leg. He had surgery, came back to catch seven passes in the last three games, but he wasn’t the same. Still fast, yes, but not fast. Not like he had been.

So Phillip Dorsett spent the spring working on that left leg and ankle area, rebuilding the strength and flexibility and then testing it in South Florida, where he grew up and where he played collegiately at Miami. He felt good, but he needed to know. So he ran the 40-yard dash for his former strength and conditioning coach at Miami, Andreu Swasey. He looked at Swasey’s stopwatch.

It said 4.27 seconds.

At the 2015 NFL Scouting Combine, Dorsett clocked a 4.33.

“I’m back where I want to be,” he says.

Colts cornerback Vontae Davis sits near Dorsett. He didn’t hear Dorsett when he told me that speed – he didn’t hear 4.27 – and I didn’t tell him. But I did ask Davis if lining up opposite someone as fast as Dorsett feels a little different, a little more dangerous, than lining up against the typical NFL receiver. Davis smiled.

“Yeah,” he said. “I mean, the guy’s fast. He can fly. Being here as a Colt, I’ve never seen anybody that can run like this guy. We’ve got some fast receivers – T.Y., Moncrief, they can run – but Dorsett … you can tell he has track speed.”

Back to Dorsett I go, and what do you know? Now he’s drawing a media crowd. A modest crowd, maybe six reporters, but it’s something. There’s even a camera. And there’s a comment being offered up to him, not a question but a statement of fact:

Colts coach Chuck Pagano and offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski, someone says to Dorsett, talk as if they expect big things from you.

“Yeah?” Dorsett replies. “I expect big things from myself, too.”

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at@GreggDoyelStar or atwww.facebook.com/gregg.doyel.