The base offense will feature two wideouts, Johnson and Hilton. But when the Colts go to their oft-used three-wide receiver lineup, it remains unclear who will be the first receiver off the bench.
"I think we have the fortune of having a wealth of talent at the skill positions," offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton said, being intentionally vague. "… In some cases, what the defensive strategy may be ... (will) dictate (that) the third and the fourth guy get more catches than the first and the second guy."
Whether they identify him or not, there is likely to be a third receiver who gets a bigger percentage of snaps than the remaining receivers. At the start of training camp, the possible choices seemed to be first-round pick Phillip Dorsett, second-year player Donte Moncrief and former Canadian Football League standout Duron Carter. Carter has failed to emerge in preseason games the way he did in training camp, so for the purposes of this discussion, let's remove his name.
That leaves Dorsett and Moncrief as the primary options – neither a bad one. Right now, it seems as if Dorsett offers a more varied skill set than Moncrief. But Moncrief possesses size (6-2, 222 pounds) that Dorsett does not. Dorsett seems to have the inside track here. He can play in the slot, runs solid short and deep routes, and he is the fastest receiver the Colts have. But Moncrief, while less consistent, is explosive in his own way.
The Colts are very high on Dorsett, so it seems likely that they'll put him in a significant role as a rookie. This means he may very well play ahead of Donte Moncrief, who was originally penciled in as the team's WR3. Dorsett is currently going in the 13th round, so he's an inexpensive flier and a potential handcuff for T.Y. Hilton/Andre Johnson owners.
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