Colts have been inconsistently using their talented tight ends
The Indianapolis Colts have a group of talented tight ends but the team’s use of those tight ends has been mind-boggling, to say the least.
During the offseason, Frank Reich explained that he wanted the Indianapolis Colts to have a tight end-centric passing offense. That became clear when the team re-signed Mo Alie-Cox and then selected Jelani Woods and Drew Ogletree in the draft just one year after drafting Kylen Granson. Through six weeks, those tight ends have shown how dangerous they are for the Colts.
Ogletree stole the show in training camp but unfortunately suffered a knee injury and won’t play a game until next season. The other three tight ends, however, have all had games where they were one of the stars of the day. For Woods, it was in Week 3 against the Kansas City Chiefs when he caught two passes for two touchdowns, including the game-winning score.
Alie-Cox’s day came a week later when he caught a career-high six passes for 85 yards and two touchdowns against the Tennessee Titans. For Granson, his performances came in Week 4 and Week 6, having a combined eight receptions for 100 yards over the two games.
While it’s been great to see the different tight ends step up, there’s been one problem. There are rarely consecutive quality performances for an individual tight end on the Colts and the reason why is the team’s mind-boggling usage.
Mo Alie-Cox really went 6-85-2 on 6 targets only to get *1* target over the last two weeks while playing less than half of the offense's snaps in both games for the first times all season. Cool!
— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) October 19, 2022
Colts are struggling to consistently involve the tight ends
After Woods’ two-touchdown performance in Week 3, he only saw 15 snaps in Week 4 and was targeted just once. He did catch the pass for a massive 33-yard gain. After Alie-Cox’s six-catch, two-touchdown day, he played 44% of the offense’s snaps in the next game and was targeted just once, recording one catch for seven yards.
Jelani Woods has admitted that he’s going through normal rookie growing pains and that’s why he’s not consistently receiving a lot of snaps but it’s hard to understand what exactly Reich’s plan is with the group of talented tight ends. It seems like their reward for great performances is fewer snaps and even less involvement in the offense. That doesn’t really seem like a recipe for success.
But, the Colts are coming off their best offensive performance of the season and the wide receivers are balling out. Michael Pittman Jr. is a solidified No. 1 wideout and Alec Pierce may just be un-guard-able 1-on-1, so maybe Frank Reich has a master plan. Whatever the case, Reich’s use of the tight ends is confusing for everyone watching Indianapolis weekly.
