WESTFIELD, IN — A mistful morning turned into a rainy day of practice as one notable player came back to practice for the first time in weeks but it came with a price as a key member of Indy’s offense left practice with a high ankle sprain.

Here are my notes from Wednesday’s practice, the Colts’ 9th practice of training camp:

• Uno — As we all know by now, Colts 2nd-year WR Josh Downs left practice early with what is now confirmed to be a high ankle sprain after being tackled by third-year safety Nick Cross in an early 7-on-7 period. As reported by ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, his recovery time is estimated at 4-6 weeks which would allow Downs to debut with the rest of the team in Indy’s regular season opener on September 8th if all goes well. The worst-case scenario has Downs returning to the mix in Week 3 of the regular season, which would still be a winning situation given the initial worry was that he’d be out for a significant amount of time. Regardless, Downs’ health is priority number one as his play on the field no longer needs refinement. Just today, before his injury, of course, Downs was dominating in 1-on-1s, putting together another patented day as “1” does. He has been Anthony Richardson’s security blanket since the two took an NFL field together and his performance throughout training camp has only provided more proof that despite his small stature, Josh Downs is a force to be reckoned with.
• QB1 — The passing game for Anthony Richardson and company mainly dealt with underneath stuff, which is to be expected for the conditions the team practiced under. The weather however provided a solid test for the passing game as Indianapolis will travel to New York and Foxborough during their last month of the regular season. Both ends of the passing spectrum were at fault during the offense’s day through the air with receivers failing to haul in the slippery balls whereas Richardson struggled to hit the mark at times. All in all, though, it was a solid output from the starting offense. I had Richardson as 10-15 through the air, completing multiple passes to Michael Pittman Jr., Anthony Gould, and Kylen Granson. The biggest play of the day for either side of the ball came on one of those AR-MPJ connections where Richardson was able to fit a deep ball in the end zone just out of CB JuJu Brents’ grasp for a touchdown.
• Free Safety — It’s especially frustrating that Nick Cross’s boneheaded tackle on Josh Downs had to happen today. Going into Wednesday’s practice, Cross was fresh off back-to-back strong practices which had culminated in a big-time diving INT on Anthony Richardson during Monday’s practice. He continued today as the presumed starter with Rodney Thomas II taking 1st team reps exclusively at Free Safety whereas Cross and Blackmon have occasionally been switched back deep, meanwhile, Ronnie Harrison Jr. has stacked multiple days playing exclusively at Strong Safety.
• Starters in Indy’s preseason opener? — During Head Coach Shane Steichen’s media availability this past Sunday he relayed that he would be revealing during today’s practice whether or not the starters would get any run against the Denver Broncos in the team’s first game of the season. Steichen however flipped the script this morning, saying that after discussing with the team on Thursday he will provide an answer during the Colts’ last horseshoe-on-horseshoe practice of training camp this Friday.
• CB1 Coming Into His Own? — Something that was lost in the fray today was JuJu Brents’ practice. I think today’s performance was Brents’ best overall day of training camp. He was sound in coverage all day & came away with multiple PBUs in 11-on-11 play, with one play, in particular, being a dropped pick off Richardson where he had baited him underneath and came up to make the play on TE Drew Ogletree. Brents has remained quiet throughout camp (a good thing for a CB1) but today he came away with some big plays. His only down play that I can recall from this past week was getting beat deep by Michael Pittman Jr. today. As the saying goes though, iron sharpens iron.
• Until Dayo Odeyingbo — The defensive line rotation was fortified today with the return of Dayo Odeyingbo. He had missed the past week and a half to two weeks of practice dealing with a calf injury, though his ramp-up was nearly nonexistent as he was seemingly full-go today. Odeyingbo has the opportunity this season for run game reps on early down situations while he’ll likely split time as a pass rusher across the defensive line with veteran DL Tyquan Lewis.