If you noticed during Sunday’s game against Chicago that Indianapolis Colts’ rookie receiver AD Mitchell wasn’t on the field as much as he had been, you were right.
After playing 29 snaps in Week 1 against Houston and then 33 snaps in Week 2 against Green Bay, Mitchell was on the field for just seven snaps versus the Bears. He finished the game with one target and no receptions.
Now, there are a few reasons for Mitchell’s reduced role. One is that Josh Downs was back after being sidelined for the first two games.
In Downs’ absence, Mitchell–along with a few other contributors–shouldered the workload from the slot. However, with Downs back on the field, those slot opportunities just weren’t available to the same extent as they had been.
On top of that, it’s been a rocky start for Mitchell. While his upside his sky-high and we see flashes of it, he’s still a first year player navigating the learning curve that comes with making the jump to the NFL level.
On 10 targets this season, he and Anthony Richardson haven’t been on the same page, with Mitchell catching only two of those passes. Alec Pierce, meanwhile, has caught 9-of-13 passes for 225 yards and two scores.
Lastly, this was a run-heavy game for the Colts with a lot of two tight end looks, which means having only two receivers on the field.
It also meant the receivers had to do a lot of blocking, in which case the Colts favored Ashton Dulin in some of those instances with him playing 14 snaps. The blocking component is a part of that overall learning curve he’s working through.
For the time being, this may be the role that Mitchell finds himself in as he continues to get acclimated and the Colts continue to (hopefully) lean heavily on the run game.
However, as we also saw during his one target on Sunday, Mitchell has the ability be a downfield threat, and in the previous two games has shown the ability to separate, which will continue to earn him some shot-play opportunities.