Reggie Wayne: 'Deepest we've ever been at receiver'

ReggieWayne
INDIANAPOLIS -- Look at the top-10 receiving leaders in the NFL and there's a noticeable absence by the Indianapolis Colts despite them leading the league in passing yards and points a game.

Yards?

Nope. Reggie Wayne is 13th.

Receptions?

No, again. Wayne is tied for 14th.

Targets?

You guessed it, nope. Wayne is 16th.

Average yards per reception?

Not even close. They don't even have a player ranked in the top 40.

The only category the Colts have a player ranked in the top 10 is receptions of at least 20 yards, as Wayne is tied for eighth with five.

They're fine with that because quarterback Andrew Luck doesn't rely on one player when it comes to passing the ball.

He prefers to spread it around.

The Colts have nine players who have at least six receptions through the first four games of the season. They're so deep that Da'Rick Rogers, who was released following his arrest earlier this week, was a healthy inactive those four games after starting three games last season.

"Like I tell everybody, this is the deepest we've ever been at receiver," Wayne said. "We've always had three and a possible. We've always had an average spade hand. It's better now. We have four to five guys we can plug in there at any time. We're loaded in there. Everybody always feels like I'm outta of my mind when I say that. No matter who is in there, you can plug guys in there at any position and they can get it done. We have to take advantage of that."

The breakdown of pass distribution through four games goes like this:

Receivers: 65 receptions, 3 touchdowns

Tight ends: 27 receptions, 6 touchdowns

Running backs: 25 receptions, 4 touchdowns

Luck's ability to not key in on one receiver over and over again makes it tough for opposing defenses. Focus on stopping Wayne and Luck will find T.Y. Hilton. Lock in on Wayne and Hilton and the quarterback has tight ends Dwayne Allen and Coby Fleener. The Colts enjoy running play-action where Luck hits running backs Ahmad Bradshaw and Trent Richardson out of the backfield. Bradshaw already has a career-high four touchdown receptions this season.

"That's something that we have in our arsenal that a lot of teams don't have," Wayne said. "Like I've been saying, you go into each game asking defenses to pick their poison. You can't just focus on one or two guys. We've got, as they say, a plethora of guys that can go out and make things happen. Knock on wood, keep everybody healthy and we'll take that any time of day."

Luck is 60-of-80 throwing for 763 yards, eight touchdowns and only one interception in the past two games. He's completed passes to nine different players in those two games.

"He's doing a great job of taking what the defense is giving him and not getting greedy, so to speak, and spreading the ball around," coach Chuck Pagano said. "They've got to make a decision defensively who they want to identify like we do as game-wreckers and take those guys away, but it's going to open it up obviously for somebody else either in the run game or the pass game."


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(espn.com)
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