INDIANAPOLIS (WRTV) -- Colts offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter is entering his fourth season with Indy, and his second straight year with quarterback Daniel Jones leading the offense.
Cooter led an Indianapolis offense last season that ranked in the top 10 across several different categories. Those categories being yards per game, passing yards per game, touchdowns, points per game, and several others.
Despite a strong offensive season, Indianapolis collapsed down the stretch, losing seven straight and finishing 8–9, with Jones missing the final four games after tearing his Achilles.
Now, as Jones continues making progress in his Achilles recovery, Cooter said he believes the 29-year-old quarterback can come back even stronger next season.
"Those guys – Year One goes to Year Two, a quarterback and a play caller – really a quarterback and an offensive staff, but that play caller relationship is so important," Cooter said. "Being in tune with each other and being able to take that next little step of maybe obviously getting out of a bad play, getting into a good play. But sometimes just, hey, I've got an okay play going here, but here's an opportunity to get into a great play. Can we check into that great play? Daniel has certainly shown the capability to do that, but as the second year of the offense comes along, that should grow and improve."
Before Jones went down with his Achilles tear in Week 14 against the Jaguars, he led Indianapolis to an 8-2 start and was even in the MVP conversation for a short while.
As Jones and Cooter gear up for their second season together, Cooter feels that their relationship can take the next step on the field.
"I think every year a starting quarterback accumulates in an offense, in an offensive structure, an offensive system with the checks at the line of scrimmage and the words and all that stuff," Cooter said. "He [Jones] can really build his – whether it's understanding or mastery, somewhere between those two words, where you are really operating at the highest possible level and really operating in sync with the play caller, right? How Shane (Steichen) sees it, how Daniel (Jones) sees it."
Another question mark lingering in the Colts quarterback room is who will be the backup quarterback. Head coach Shane Steichen said it will be an open competition between Riley Leonard and Anthony Richardson for the backup spot.
As the two quarterbacks get set to participate in training camp starting in late July, Cooter said he will allow the two quarterbacks to split an equal share of reps before making the final choice on the backup spot.
"Every training camp I've ever gone into, there's been position battles going into the training camp," Cooter said. "We try as much as we can to make the reps equal and the opportunities equal. We do try to track as much as we can track, and we track a ton of stuff amongst our entire offense positionally. But the game is not as simple as that tracking chart, that completion chart, that sort of whatever you want to statistically look at chart. We're trying to ultimately find the best guy to help our team in that role, and we do intend to, shoot, give them both a great opportunity with the number of reps and the opportunities."
The Colts begin training camp on July 29th.
