Insider: Ashton Dulin is becoming more than a special teams speed demon for the Colts
Nate AtkinsWESTFIELD -- Ashton Dulin broke his route inside, but Nick Foles' pass required something more than that. As Dulin had a defensive back draping him like a shadow beneath the far setting sun, his quarterback went far inside in the hopes of throwing him open.
So Dulin launched off his feet like a diver from a plank and stretched all 6-foot-1 of him across the grass until the ball stuck to his hands.
This is a different Dulin than the one the Colts have seen before. And it's a welcomed sight.
"I cannot emphasize how strongly we feel about Ashton Dulin," coach Frank Reich said. "He's going to play a role in this offense. He's proven it. He's earned it.
"He's a playmaker. We love him. We're all planning on him making a significant contribution to not only special teams but to the offense this year."
The version of Dulin they signed in 2019 as an undrafted free agent was built almost entirely on speed. He came from an Ohio university called Malone, where he scored 26 touchdowns in his final two years at a football program so small that it no longer even exists. He went there to run track and play football at the same time.
More: One and only: Colts' Ashton Dulin made NFL from college program that no longer exists
So, with the Colts, he blended two jobs into one through his 4.43 speed and blurring first step. He became a gunner on special teams. By his third season in 2021, he rose to the level of a second-team All-Pro, but the Colts collapsed down the stretch when the passing game couldn't produce. Dulin had 13 catches for 173 yards and two touchdowns, limited to 30% of the snaps on a limited route tree.
He thought he could do about it now that T.Y. Hilton and Zach Pascal were gone in free agency and the Colts were bringing him back on a restricted free agent tender worth $2.433 million. He began to feel the weight of them all, to not let Jonathan Taylor win another rushing title in vain.
So Dulin is trying something he hadn't before: Instead of just trying to run away from people, he's building the muscle memory, the body control, the slender smoothness to become a more complete offensive weapon.
That growth comes with some pains. On Tuesday, the first day in full pads, Dulin cut toward the goal post for a touchdown pass when he saw a defender breaking toward him and the ball slipped through his hands.
He smacked them together and jogged back to the huddle.
"I'm coming in each day knowing it's training camp: You have to grind with it," Dulin said. "I'm working on my technique, staying on my fundamentals, catching the football, being on my assignments as well to build trust."
The grind has produced more ups and downs, allowing him to earn the No. 4 spot in the receiver rotation behind starters Michael Pittman Jr., Parris Campbell and Cincinnati rookie Alec Pierce. The track speed is playing enough now to shine more frequently, like on Tuesday, when Dulin took a jet sweep around the right side so fast that a defense ready to hit people didn't get a chance.
That play brought him back to Malone, where he took his first touch 82 yards to the house. But he's trying to graduate beyond that now, to a place where jet sweeps and play-action deep passes are a sliver of what he does. To get there, he needs to plot out how his 6-1 body can best move around people at a variety of angles.
"I'm just honing in on my own techniques and my own route running," he said.
That means working with experienced resources he's never had before. In individual drills, he runs routes for coach Reggie Wayne, who played 14 seasons for the Colts and reached six Pro Bowls with somewhat similar size but nowhere near the speed. In team settings, he's running routes for Matt Ryan and Foles, two cerebral veterans who have both started Super Bowls.
He's a long way from Malone.
He's trying to get a long way from just trying to make a team, too.
Contact Colts insider Nate Atkins at natkins@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @NateAtkins_.