The Colts had five rookie skill-position players who made significant impacts as rookies. The guy who drafted each of them sees one having the biggest potential of any guy on the roster to break out in 2013.
“The first player that would come to mind would be [tight end] Coby Fleener,” G.M. Ryan Grigson sold Scott Pioli of Pro Football Talk on NBCSN. “Knock on wood, he’s a guy that you knew had speed, had size being six-six and running 4.51 [seconds in the 40-yard dash]. You know he could be a tough mismatch downfield because he could play above the rim.”
Helping Fleener is the arrival of his offensive coordinator at Stanford, Pep Hamilton, who is now running the offense in Indy.
“He’s doing the same things that made him that guy that we all said, ‘Wow,’” Grigson said. “So I think just him having that comfort with Pep being here and being back in the system, it’s really come across like he’s ready to have a great year. We expect that from him, top. He’s got to get better as a blocker, he knows that. We want him to be a threat downfield.”
His name is also a lot of fun to say. If Grigson is right, we’ll all be saying it a lot this year.