Indianapolis Colts star wide receiver Reggie Wayne might not lead the team in receiving yards next season after the addition of Hakeem Nicks and further development from T.Y. Hilton, but he should still have a very strong season and has more than a fair shot at being the team’s leader in receptions. Wayne was averaging about 72 yards per game before tearing his ACL in a Week 7 win over the Denver Broncos last year, and he had 106 receptions for 1,355 yards the previous year.
Horseshoe Heroes
Some were worried that Wayne would lose explosiveness and not be the same player following a major knee injury, because the Colts legend is 35. But according to ESPN NFL Nation’s Mike Wells, Wayne hasn’t shown any decline following the injury, even this early in training camp. Wells writes, “Wayne looked like the player who terrorized defenses for many years prior to tearing his ACL last October,” providing two acrobatic-sounding touchdown receptions from Andrew Luck as examples.
Wayne will be one of the top receivers in an incredibly deep and talented group of weapons for star QB Luck, who will attempt more passes and take more responsibility of the offense in his third season. That’s going to be a net win for the Colts, and it will be interesting to see if the star quartet of Wayne, Hilton, Nicks, and Dwayne Allen will become a quintet, as Da’Rick Rogers and tools-y rookie Donte Moncrief are legit sleepers.
There are plenty of mouths to feed in the Colts offense, but there’s room for those guys to get some targets. Moreover, there’s plenty of room for Wayne to snag another 70 catches, as he has four 100-catch and and nine 70-catch seasons under his belt. In fact, he would have made it ten straight 70-catch seasons had he not been injured last year.