Witt home before push to make Colts' roster

By JASON JUNO

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Ewen --- As Jake Witt gets closer to achieving his goals with the Indianapolis Colts, he’s still a Yooper.

Last week, the Ewen-Trout Creek graduate helped out at the U.P. Football All-Star Game in Marquette. The day after the game, he fished. The day after that, the same thing.

Of course there’s still training to keep up with, the playbook and position skillwork to perfect. But he has another month before the Colts’ grueling training camp starts. Why rush a U.P. summer?

“That’s what I’ve been trying to do, that and train,” Witt said after getting off Erickson Lake Monday with some decent largemouth bass. “Just trying to destress before I get back into it.”

Witt considered his spring with the Colts a good one.

He practiced as second string left tackle for the duration of camp. The Colts’ training camp kicks off in about a month — July 24 — and he’s excited for that challenge while hoping to stay healthy after a hip injury cut his season short just days into camp last year. Then he has his sights on staking a claim to a roster spot and working his way into a game and eventually being a part of the Colts’ elite offensive line.

“Physically I feel great, mentally fantastic,” Witt said. “I know I learned a lot over this past year being on injured reserve. So I think it was a great year for me just to be able to learn like I said before and take advantage of that. I was able to go out this spring to finally get my body back into it, with the guys, all that kind of stuff. It was a good spring, a good, successful spring.”

The Colts’ offensive line ranks seventh heading into the 2024 NFL season. The Texans Wire combined rankings from three sites to come up with that mark.

That means the line will be tough for anyone to get into. But everyone needs depth — how many offensive lines make it through every week of the grueling season intact? — and Witt is hoping to prove he can provide that this summer.

“I want to go to training camp, play well and then play well enough to where they can’t release me off the 53,” Witt said of the 53-man roster teams can carry into regular-season games. “I want to make the 53, that’s the first goal of mine. The next goal is to play in a game. And I think that will start with special teams, that will start with field goal. … Special teams is the realistic possibility at this point for the action I’ll have, at least at this point of the season.

“For me, the ultimate goal is just to be able to get out there and play with the offense. Everybody’s one week of good practice from playing with the offense. Everybody is also one injury away from playing as well. Obviously it’s football and people get injured. You don’t want to see injuries with anybody, but everybody has to stay ready and I think I’m one injury — if I make that 53 — I’m injury away from playing and then also one week of great practice from being a part of this team. So I think I just have to go out there and see what happens.”

He’s not hoping for anyone to get hurt. He thinks they have a top-three offensive line and are capable of special things as a team if they stay healthy.

“If we stay healthy, I think we’ll be a playoff team and hopefully more than that,” he said. “We hope to see that, but in football, that’s not going to happen all the time. And there’s guys like me and the other role players with the offensive line that are there to be ready to fill those positions when things happen.”

Another chance to prove himself may come in the preseason. Their first preseason game is Aug. 11 at home against Denver.

“I’m just excited to get out there and finally complete a training camp, play in the preseason games and see what I can do,” Witt said. “Last year not being able to fully see where I stand in the NFL, it was always for me that question mark. This is finally my chance to go out there and see what I can do and see how I match up. I’m just super excited about that, being a competitive person, going out there and accepting the challenge. I just looking forward to training camp. Obviously it’s a grind and not that much fun at times, but you still look forward to it, you look forward to the preseason games because that’ll be my first NFL action against another opponent and I’m just excited to see how I stack up.”

His hip injury seems to be behind him. He got through the offseason camp just fine. He wasn’t concerned heading into last training camp, but he’s in a different spot physically this time around.

“I think it was just kind of a thing where it was me stacking on 30 pounds in three months to lead up to it and my body not used to the weight at that time might have played into it,” Witt said. “But having a year now at 300 pounds has been great. I think I’m at a much better place physically now.”

The Colts start the regular season on Sept. 8 at home against the Houston Texas, the team that kept them out of the playoffs with a win in the head-to-head Week 18 game last year.

Indianapolis plays the NFC North teams this year. That starts in week two with a Sept. 15 trip to play Green Bay at Lambeau Field. They host Chicago in Week 3, go to Minnesota in Week 9 and host Detroit in Week 12.

Before all that, Witt gets to enjoy some time in the U.P.

He helped out at the U.P. All-Star Football game over the last week. He played in the game in 2018, helped a bit last year and expanded his role this year. Dustin Brancheau, owner of AdvantEDGE Sports Training, where Witt trained in Marquette, took over the game this year.

“Thankful for him that he gave me the opportunity to be a bigger part of the game than I was last year. And Dustin being a Yooper has a great mind for where he wants to take this game, so I’m glad I could be a part of that,” Witt said.

Witt was there to answer questions any of the players may have had as they prepare to head off to college either to play college sports or prepare for a job.

“Because I’ve been there before when I was in high school but going off to play, I just tried to be there, talk to them, if any of them had questions, talk one-on-one with me,” Witt said. “I was there, I wanted to make them feel welcome, they could pick my brain if they needed it.”

He also watched practices and helped where he could with the game itself.

“The Habitat for Humanity project we did with Nick Baumgartner was fun,” Witt said of the home project they helped finish with the Olympic gold medalist from Iron River.

Team Red won the game 49-25.