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WESTFIELD — Everything about Riley Leonard’s career has come faster than he expected.
Drafted in the sixth round as a developmental quarterback by the Colts, Leonard expected to sit and wait.
But he was thrust into the No. 2 role in October, pushed into a game in early December, handed his first start in the regular season finale against the NFL’s best defense.
Leonard is now locked in a duel with Anthony Richardson for the No. 2 job behind Daniel Jones, a sixth-round pick in his second season going toe-to-toe with a top-five pick who has 15 NFL starts.
“Every day, those guys are battling,” Indianapolis head coach Shane Steichen said. “Someone's got to win the job and go take it, and those guys are back and forth.”
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Leonard prepared for this competition by trying to upgrade the processor speed in his head.
When Jones went down with a torn right Achilles tendon in early December against Jacksonville, one of the reasons the Colts tried the Hail Mary of going to Philip Rivers instead of handing Leonard the job was the 44-year-old’s ability to make changes pre-snap, getting the Colts out of bad plays and into the right ones. Leonard learned from watching Jones and Rivers, two quarterbacks who excel at reading the defense before the ball is snapped.
Leonard, like a lot of young quarterbacks, spent a lot of his time pre-snap trying to make sure the Colts were running the right play, rather than diagnosing the information the defense was giving him.
“I mean, shoot, if you break the huddle at 15 seconds, I feel like last year the first eight seconds of that were figuring out what the motions were and who's supposed to be where,” Leonard said. “Now, I'm able to save eight seconds and really figure out what the defense is doing and get my eyes up. So mentally, I mean, this game and quarterback is all about pre-snap decisions, and I think I've done a great job of kind of understanding, maybe not exactly where the ball should go, but knowing where it shouldn't go.”
The next step is turning that information into action after the snap.
Leonard has completed 62.1% of his passes in training camp so far, according to stats compiled by IndyStar, and he’s turned in a handful of big plays.
But he’s also aware of what he needs to improve.
“Processing post-snap,” Leonard said. “Letting it fly, not hesitating.”
Leonard has often held the ball too long in this training camp, an issue that gives the pass rush more time to collapse the pocket and sometimes gives the coverage time to take away the open receiver.
The issue is not crippling. One of Leonard’s strengths as a quarterback is his ability to improvise, one of the reasons he looked better than just about anybody expected in his playing time against the Jaguars and Texans last season.
But Leonard also knows it’s the next step.
“That’s a big part of playing quarterback in this league, is letting it rip,” Leonard said. “I luckily haven’t caught myself doing this much, at all, but when you’re in a competition, sometimes human nature can make you be a little more conservative and hesitant at times, but luckily, my mentality has been attack, let it fly.”
Leonard has made some big plays in practices. There was a deep bomb to Nick Westbrook-Ikhine to jump-start a two-minute drill in the first week, a gorgeous throw to Coleman Owen for a touchdown Saturday, a couple of nice throws to Eli Pancol for a big gain and a score on Sunday.
He has also gone through bouts of inaccuracy.
“Riley’s had some really nice plays, he’s moved the offense at times,” offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter said. “We’re striving for more consistency out of our second and third units. … We want to be explosive while also being efficient.”
Leonard often has a tendency to play his best when the lights are brightest.
With joint practices against the Patriots and Falcons looming, along with preseason games on tap, Leonard is going to get a chance to show what he can do.
To prove he can put the information he’s getting to good use.
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Riley Leonard knows he must make faster decisions to be Colts backup QB
Continue reading...
Drafted in the sixth round as a developmental quarterback by the Colts, Leonard expected to sit and wait.
But he was thrust into the No. 2 role in October, pushed into a game in early December, handed his first start in the regular season finale against the NFL’s best defense.
Leonard is now locked in a duel with Anthony Richardson for the No. 2 job behind Daniel Jones, a sixth-round pick in his second season going toe-to-toe with a top-five pick who has 15 NFL starts.
“Every day, those guys are battling,” Indianapolis head coach Shane Steichen said. “Someone's got to win the job and go take it, and those guys are back and forth.”
Buy Colts tickets
Leonard prepared for this competition by trying to upgrade the processor speed in his head.
When Jones went down with a torn right Achilles tendon in early December against Jacksonville, one of the reasons the Colts tried the Hail Mary of going to Philip Rivers instead of handing Leonard the job was the 44-year-old’s ability to make changes pre-snap, getting the Colts out of bad plays and into the right ones. Leonard learned from watching Jones and Rivers, two quarterbacks who excel at reading the defense before the ball is snapped.
Leonard, like a lot of young quarterbacks, spent a lot of his time pre-snap trying to make sure the Colts were running the right play, rather than diagnosing the information the defense was giving him.
“I mean, shoot, if you break the huddle at 15 seconds, I feel like last year the first eight seconds of that were figuring out what the motions were and who's supposed to be where,” Leonard said. “Now, I'm able to save eight seconds and really figure out what the defense is doing and get my eyes up. So mentally, I mean, this game and quarterback is all about pre-snap decisions, and I think I've done a great job of kind of understanding, maybe not exactly where the ball should go, but knowing where it shouldn't go.”
The next step is turning that information into action after the snap.
Leonard has completed 62.1% of his passes in training camp so far, according to stats compiled by IndyStar, and he’s turned in a handful of big plays.
But he’s also aware of what he needs to improve.
“Processing post-snap,” Leonard said. “Letting it fly, not hesitating.”
Leonard has often held the ball too long in this training camp, an issue that gives the pass rush more time to collapse the pocket and sometimes gives the coverage time to take away the open receiver.
The issue is not crippling. One of Leonard’s strengths as a quarterback is his ability to improvise, one of the reasons he looked better than just about anybody expected in his playing time against the Jaguars and Texans last season.
But Leonard also knows it’s the next step.
“That’s a big part of playing quarterback in this league, is letting it rip,” Leonard said. “I luckily haven’t caught myself doing this much, at all, but when you’re in a competition, sometimes human nature can make you be a little more conservative and hesitant at times, but luckily, my mentality has been attack, let it fly.”
Leonard has made some big plays in practices. There was a deep bomb to Nick Westbrook-Ikhine to jump-start a two-minute drill in the first week, a gorgeous throw to Coleman Owen for a touchdown Saturday, a couple of nice throws to Eli Pancol for a big gain and a score on Sunday.
He has also gone through bouts of inaccuracy.
“Riley’s had some really nice plays, he’s moved the offense at times,” offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter said. “We’re striving for more consistency out of our second and third units. … We want to be explosive while also being efficient.”
Leonard often has a tendency to play his best when the lights are brightest.
With joint practices against the Patriots and Falcons looming, along with preseason games on tap, Leonard is going to get a chance to show what he can do.
To prove he can put the information he’s getting to good use.
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Riley Leonard knows he must make faster decisions to be Colts backup QB
Continue reading...
