Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni said earlier this week that the team’s passing offense “runs through” T.Y. Hilton.
Hilton, 30, accepts the challenge and relishes the opportunity after an injury-plagued 2019.
He will play with his ninth quarterback in his ninth season but believes in Philip Rivers.
“I think it could be special,” Hilton said Wednesday during a conference call with local media, via George Bremer of heraldbulletin.com. “I feel like the way I’m training, the way my body feels and Philip doing his thing, I feel like this can be an All-Pro year for me.”
Hilton has never made All-Pro, though he led the league with 1,448 yards receiving in 2016. He has earned Pro Bowl honors four times but the last time was 2017.
In 2019, after Andrew Luck’s sudden retirement, Hilton battled injuries in missing a career-high six games and averaging a career-low 11.1 yards per reception.
“The motivation is I kind of let me teammates down last year by being hurt, being injured -- things you really can’t control,” Hilton said. “It’s not like you are playing Madden and can cut injuries off. My main thing now is just getting my body back where it is, which I told you at the end of the season I’ll be 100 percent. So [I’m] just saying on top of my game.
“I am working out twice a day, so I don’t let my teammates down. I’m out there just doing what I am doing and just helping them out the best way I can. My motivation is to get back where I was, and that’s being on top of the game.”