Before training camp began, the Colts seemed bullish on second-year tight end Will Mallory.
“Mallory we think is going to do some really good things,” said Ballard before training camp.
However, during the first three games of the regular season, that is not how things have played out. In fact, Mallory has been a healthy scratch for all three contests so far.
Instead, the Colts have opted to have only three tight ends active on game day. Although there were unknowns around the tight end position for the Colts entering training camp, it became clear fairly quickly that Mo Alie-Cox and Kylen Granson were at the top of the depth chart,
Alie-Cox would fill the more blocking specific role and Granson the do-it-all role. In addition to those two, Drew Ogletree, another blocking-specific tight end, has also been active.
But with this approach, the Colts have lacked any sort of passing game threat at this position. Combined, the three players have seven targets in two games and three receptions for 43 yards–with 22 of those yards coming from Alie-Cox on one play.
In an offense that features Jonathan Taylor and Anthony Richardson, you could understand why they Colts may want a more blocking-heavy tight end room. Except, through two games, Richardson hasn’t been asked to run all that much, and after Taylor struggled to get going against Houston, he had just 12 carries versus the Packers.
The passing game, meanwhile, has dealt with inconsistencies, particularly in the short to intermediate passing games. As always, there are a myriad of reasons for this, but certainly not helping was Josh Downs being out and no real passing game threat at tight end. That takes away a lot of options for Richardson.
Now, this isn’t to say that Mallory would all of a sudden fix this, but he’d bring much more passing game potential to the position for the Colts. Mallory caught 82 percent of his targets in 2023 at 11.5 yards per catch. In college at Miami, he averaged nearly 14.0 yards per catch over his career.
With that said, there’s a reason that Mallory hasn’t been active. Obviously, the glimpse we get is incredibly small compared to what the coaching staff sees and what they want from a game-plan perspective.
But also, I’m not sure giving him some snaps would hurt things at this point either, and who knows, maybe he provides a spark.
