The Colts drafted two wide receivers in 2018 late in the draft. But neither one of them were able to show much. Here we take a look at the first one drafted.
Daurice Fountain was taken in the fifth round out of Northern Iowa. He was a flier taken late in the draft. He showed good hands and decent athleticism in college and was thought he could potentially contribute down the line on this Colts team.
He better contribute down the line, or he could find himself without a job. Fountain alarmingly put up zero stats in 2018. He was inactive for most of the games the Colts played. In fact, he only played in one regular season game.
Most of those games he was a healthy scratch. Fountain spent most of this year on the practice squad and couldn’t crack the active roster. It was surprising considering he had shown some promise in training camp. When receivers had drop problems early, it was baffling to not see him out there.
But then in the final game of the season against the Chiefs in Arrowhead, he showed everyone why he never played. Fountain dropped a wide open touchdown pass late in the game. There was no one around him, he just flat out missed an easy catch.
Those drop problems plagued him all year in practice. Colts coaches didn’t feel comfortable enough to put him in. Even in an extremely small sample size, it’s hard to argue against that. Fountain just simply doesn’t look like an NFL receiver at this point.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see Fountain get cut in training camp. The Colts will be rebuilding most of their receiving corp, and Fountain could get caught in the crossfire. If he does stay, it would only be because he is still on a rookie deal and the team wants to see if they can squeeze any type of production out of him.
Fountain was only a fifth round pick, so him not producing isn’t a killer. But it would have been nice for him to show absolutely anything in his rookie season.