INDIANAPOLIS — Days after the draft, Reggie Wayne was already on a Zoom call with Josh Downs, taking an hour and a half to go through the Colts’ playbook, prepping the team’s third-round pick for his first taste of the NFL at the team’s rookie minicamp.
The rookie heard the message loud and clear. Wayne wants him to be ready, to challenge the older, more established receivers on the roster right from the start.
Downs is his guy, the guy Wayne liked more than the rest of the NFL.
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Wayne thinks the North Carolina product can bring something special to the Indianapolis offense.
“I thought he was the best receiver at the Combine,” Wayne said. “I just think the way he ran his routes was effortless, smooth, and actually, what I saw at the Combine was not what I saw on tape. On tape … things looked a little bit more controlled, but at the Combine, you saw his speed.”
Wayne walked up to Downs after that workout, told him he was the best receiver in his group.
He meant it.
Wayne had watched North Carolina’s film already by that point, but the combine workout sent the legendary Colt back into the tape, confirming that the route-running he’d seen on the Lucas Oil turf had shown up when the Tar Heels let Downs go to work.
Downs is only 5-9, 171 pounds, but Wayne believed the skills he saw would play.
“I’m not necessarily a tiny-guy receiver, but this draft was full of smaller guys, and he stood out,” Wayne said. “I put an asterisk by his name and then I came into my office and really dove in deep, did my evaluations.”
The rest of the NFL didn’t agree with Wayne.
Eleven receivers came off the board before the Colts snapped up Downs at pick No. 79.
“It’s just always been like that, my whole life,” Downs said. “I’m a shorter guy, so people like to doubt me. I like being the underdog.”
A handful — Baltimore first-rounder Zay Flowers, Minnesota first-rounder Jordan Addison, Houston third-rounder Tank Dell — had similar size concerns as Downs, either by height or by weight. Dell, at 5-8, 165 pounds, is actually smaller.
But Wayne’s never been the type of guy who lets somebody else’s opinion affect his own.
Even the scouts in his own building. When Wayne finished his evaluation of the draft class, he met with the Colts’ scouting department and gave them his top five receivers, the next five on the list and on down through the draft class.
“Everybody that I like, I’m their lawyer,” Wayne said. “I’m fighting for them, I’m talking the pros, the cons, how I think they could help. They go against the grain, I go back at them, I counter-offer. … To me, it’s the (most fun) part. I get to play Matlock.”
To be clear, that’s what Colts general manager Chris Ballard wants from his coaching staff.
And the good news is the scouting staff agreed with a lot of Wayne’s points on the hyper-productive receiver who caught 195 passes for North Carolina the past two seasons.
“When you’ve got them liking him and me liking him, it’s a win-win,” Wayne said.
Now that Downs is in Indianapolis, it’s up to Wayne to make sure Downs backs up his draft-day belief in him.
“He wants me to get in there early, compete with the older guys,” Downs said.
Indianapolis signed veteran Isaiah McKenzie in free agency to play the slot, but there is still opportunity for Downs to take over the starting role right away. McKenzie’s been at his best in the NFL as a complementary piece; he was handed the starting slot job in Buffalo last season and wasn’t able to hang onto it.
The Colts need a slot receiver who can get consistent separation.
“Josh is a very crafty route runner,” Indianapolis head coach Shane Steichen said. “He’s savvy, he’s got great quickness in and out of breaks, he’s got a really good feel for routes and zones and finding dead spots.”
With that in mind, Downs already has a good idea what Indianapolis is going to ask him to do right away, identifying option routes, crossers and drag routes as his primary role in the Colts offense at the team’s rookie minicamp.
A lot of work over the middle.
The kind of work Downs likes.
“That’s where the money’s at,” Downs said.
Wayne remains convinced Downs is the kind of receiver who can thrive over the middle.
He got his man.
And he’s going to do everything he can to prove he made the right call.L
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05-20-2023, 02:21 PM
Insider: Why Reggie Wayne fought for Colts to draft rookie WR Josh Downs
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