Sometimes, for a player to be at his best, he or she simply needs to find a new team to play for. Perhaps it's a cultural fit, or a fit in a scheme, but things aren't working out. This is the case with the Indianapolis Colts and wide receiver Adonai Mitchell.
Indianapolis has clearly lost faith in the young wide receiver. He was a second-round pick in 2024, who caught just 41.8 percent of his targets in his rookie season. He struggled a bit with drops, but mostly was a poor route-runner who could create little to no separation from his defender.
Maybe this was simply a wideout having a rough first year. This is common, and the hope was that Mitchell would improve in year two. He hasn't. In fact, he might be the sole reason that the Colts have lost any games at all. His two critical (and one bone-headed) mistakes in Week 4 cost Indianapolis the game.
Indianapolis Colts should move on from Adonai Mitchell
He got reps in that game because Alec Pierce had suffered a concussion in Week 3 and couldn't play. The same situation could have happened in Week 5 as Pierce missed that game, too, but instead, Indianapolis decided to give Ashton Dulin a lot of reps while Mitchell got only six.
Things got worse for Mitchell in Week 6 because he was a healthy scratch. In other words, the second-year player finally got a chance to shine in Week 4, completely failed, and is getting fewer and fewer chances since.
That would imply that Mitchell isn't doing the right things in practice, either. If he were to show the coaches after his Week 4 meltdown that he was driven to make up for his mistakes, he probably would get more reps. He isn't.
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At this point, if the Indianapolis Colts wanted to cut Adonai Mitchell, the team would save money. His rookie deal was for four years and a maximum of $7,386,086. If Indy released him, the team would save a little over a million dollars.
None of this is to imply Adonai Mitchell is a bad person. The fact is that the NFL is a tough business, and difficult decisions need to be made. A move to another team (and some team would pick Mitchell up) would probably help the receiver do a reset. For the Indianapolis Colts, currently, Mitchell is simply one receiver too many.