Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Josh Downs has already been ruled out of Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans, which could mean rookie AD Mitchell becomes the primary slot option for the offense.
Downs has been sidelined since early August with a high ankle sprain. During that time, which included all three preseason games, Mitchell has seen the bulk of the slot snaps with the starting offense. In fact, according to PFF, nearly 70 percent of Mitchell’s preseason snaps came lined up in the slot.
On one hand, Shane Steichen’s decision to line up Mitchell in the slot this summer could be seen as a bit of a surprise, given that he was rarely asked to fill that role in college. Over three college seasons, only 13 percent of Mitchell’s 1,517 total snaps came from the slot.
However, the reason that we shouldn’t be surprised is that with Mitchell in the slot, along with Michael Pittman and Alec Pierce out wide, this allows the Colts to get their current best three available receivers all on the field together.
Mitchell’s explosiveness, coupled with his route-running ability, allows him to make an impact at all levels of the field. Those are two traits that will also help Mitchell with his transition inside, where it is more of a confined space with less room to operate.
“His releases are like the best I’ve seen,” Michael Pittman said about Mitchell during training camp. “I’ve actually been studying him because he’s so good at it and that’s something that I noticed from Day 1.”
Listed at 6-4 – 196 pounds, Mitchell will also bring added size to the slot position, which could help create mismatches in the passing game and perhaps is something that can be exploited in the run game as a blocker.
Although Mitchell will likely handle the bulk of the slot snaps, the Colts could also turn to Anthony Gould, particularly as the motion man, a role Downs was also asked to fill.