INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy has often pointed out that the biggest improvement in an NFL player’s career comes between his rookie season and his second year in the league.
That was certainly the case when it came to Pro Bowl wide receiver Reggie Wayne, who saw his reception totals jump from a career-low 27 in 2001 to 49 a year later. In fact, Wayne — who had a team-high 104 catches for 1,510 yards and 10 touchdowns a year ago — has steadily improved his statistics each year that he has been in the league.
Now, heading into the 2008 season, its up to a pair of second-year receivers from Ohio State to raise their levels of play. Anthony Gonzalez and Roy Hall have both looking to do exactly that during the team’s three-day minicamp, which ended after a pair of practices on Sunday.
Gonzalez, the team’s first-round draft choice in 2007, had a respectable rookie season as he hauled in 37 passes for 576 yards and three touchdowns. But his development was held back a bit as he got a late start in practice a year ago due to NFL rules and injuries.
“Year two is starting out a lot better than year one,” he joked Sunday. “Not having to deal with the pressures of being a rookie and trying to jam an offense into your head in two days and that whole thing. I feel like I knocked out a lot of the hurdles that I think you have to jump over as a rookie. So it feels a lot of better being in year two than it did in year one for sure.”
While Gonzalez attended the Colts’ rookie camp the week after the 2007 draft, he was forced to miss the team’s full minicamp last year due to a league rule that prohibited first-year players from practicing if their respective colleges hadn’t completed their graduation exercises.
He also attended an NFL-related rookie photo shoot in Los Angeles. Consequently, he wasn’t able to do anything until the final week of organized team activities last spring.
“I wasn’t even at minicamp last year. So this is my first experience with the awesome thing. But, truthfully, I think that set me back a little bit last year. I really wanted to be here last year but there was a league rule that prevented it. So I am happy to be here this year just to get off on the right foot and start with everybody else and get back into the flow.”
With the knee injury to veteran Marvin Harrison that kept him sidelined for most of the regular season, Gonzalez was forced to see playing time as both a slot and outside receiver. That learning experience may have been somewhat of a headache in the beginning, but it may have ultimately helped into learning Indianapolis’ offense much quicker.
“I think, if anything, it helped actually. If you’re pigeon-holed in one spot, then maybe you can get comfortable with knowing just that role and not necessarily the big picture of things,” he said.
“Once you move from [outside receiver] to [slot] and back and forth and things like that, you really have to get a grasp of everything that is going on or else you’ll have a bust and then the play doesn’t work. Initially it was a little bit harder and may be slower. But at the end of the day, it definitely helped.”
n Coming back from injury — Hall, a fifth-round draft choice a year ago, was coming along nicely his first year before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury at Houston on Sept. 23. He was hurt after a special-teams collision with former Texans’ defensive tackle Cedric Killings.
Killings, who ended up missing the rest of the season as well due to a fractured vertebra in his neck, was forced to retire from the league in late February due to the injury. He has recovered fully but was told by team doctors that he suffered an increased risk of permanent paralysis if he continued to play.
The outcome of that injury was not lost on Hall, who has been given a clean bill of health and is looking forward to showing what he can do this season.
“I’ve watched [the play] a couple of times in the offseason from different angles. Sometimes it looks like he got the best of me and then other times it looks like I got the best of him. I care to look at the ones where I got the best of him,” he said.
“But it was kind of sad to see that he had to retire this year. My heart goes out to him and his family. I heard that he was a great special-teams player and a hard worker. His career is cut short, but that’s the game of football. If I had to do it all over again I would [show] the same aggressiveness and [play] the same kind of play. It’s just football.”
Hall might have been able to return and play late last season had he not been placed on the Colts’ injured-reserve list. That effectively ended his first year in the league, but it also provided him additional time to acclimate himself to life in the NFL and to get an early start on preparing for 2008.
“We just did a lot of drill work. Kevin Rogers, who’s one of our pro scouts, he took me out ever since back in December and ran me through some drills … some hand work and some foot work. It helped out a lot. And when we started coaching sessions, [wide receivers coach Clyde Christensen] took me out there, took us out there as a group and got after it. It’s helped a lot,” he admitted, adding that he was excited to get back on the practice field for the start of minicamp. His comfort level heading into training camp is high.
“Absolutely. I thought when I got out there, my memory wasn’t as quite as I thought it was going to be. But as I keep playing and going through the plays and rehearsing the plays, it came back to me pretty fast. The game slows down once you know the plays and know what’s going on. It’s helped out a lot, being injured, being able to see everything and get things done right.”
Hall is expected to see work both as a slot and outside receiver. He is currently working behind Wayne, learning as he goes along.
“A little bit of slot work, but mostly outside,” he said. “I’m No. 2 behind Reggie Wayne and he’s a great teacher. Sometimes I find myself kind of mimicking some of things that he does. But why not try to be like one of the best in the league. It’s really helping me out watching him and communicating with him. He’s really helping me out a lot.”
• Super Bowl XLVI confirmation could come Tuesday — With the NFL slated to announce the location of 2012 Super Bowl on Tuesday, Indianapolis city officials — along with representatives of the Colts — are quietly confident that their bid to host the game at Lucas Oil Stadium will win out over similar offers from Houston and Glendale, Arizona.
The league’s 32 team owners will be in Atlanta for a one-day spring meeting, where all three cities will have a final chance to make presentations. Indianapolis lost a close vote last year to Dallas for the right to host the 2011 Super Bowl, which could turn out to be a good omen as it relates to this year’s selection process. Official word of the NFL’s Super Bowl site decision is expected to come no later than 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Also on the owners agenda will be the fate of the league’s collective bargaining agreement with the National Football League Player’s Association. A decision to opt out of the agreement, which is scheduled to expire after the 2011 draft, might come at that time.
If the CBA isn’t extended, the 2009 season will be the last one with a salary cap. Owners could also vote to extend the contract for two more years, which would give both sides more time to work out a new deal and stave off any type of future labor stoppages.
• OTAs on tap this week — While this past weekend’s minicamp was mandatory for veterans and rookies, organized team activities — which begin Tuesday — are strictly voluntary. The OTAs will run the next four weeks, through the remainder of this month and will conclude on June 12.
Dungy expects good participation for the workouts.
“We’ve always had a good number of our players here [for the OTAs]. I don’t expect that to change this year,” he said.
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