Colts' Week 1 Snap Counts: Top Draft Pick Goes MIA

The Indianapolis Colts opened up their season on Sunday with a lopsided home loss to the Baltimore Ravens at Lucas Oil Stadium, getting outpaced, 41-23.

Backup quarterback Anthony Richardson Sr. and rookie linebacker CJ Allen were both active but did not play.

Emergency third quarterback Riley Leonard, running back DJ Giddens, interior offensive lineman Dalton Tucker, edge defender George Gumbs Jr., linebacker Austin Ajiake (hamstring), and cornerback Johnathan Edwards were all inactive.

Here is how much action each player saw on offense, defense, and special teams:

Quarterback Daniel Jones' season ended in Week 14 last season with a torn right Achilles. He underwent surgery within the week and is already fully back, just nine months later.

At running back, Jonathan Taylor continues to dominate the backfield timeshare. He and Seth McGowan were the only running backs available, and his 19 carries accounted for all but one of the Colts' runs on the day, as Jones had a scramble. All six of McGowan's snaps were passing downs, according to Pro Football Focus, as he ran routes on four of them and stayed in to pass protect twice.

Wide receiver Alec Pierce is being ramped up after missing essentially all of the offseason while recovering from ankle/heel surgery. His 59% share will continue to rise, as Laquon Treadwell's likely shrinks in the coming weeks.

The Colts only went with a jumbo set once, and Luke Tenuta was the extra offensive lineman. There was some curiosity about whether it would be Tenuta or rookie guard Jalen Farmer.

Laiatu Latu and Arden Key pretty well dominated the edge reps, with Jaylahn Tuimoloau and Micheal Clemons coming in as the second wave. Clemons played six snaps on the edge and eight snaps inside at tackle, according to PFF.

It was a pleasant surprise to see defensive tackle DeForest Buckner be able to play 75% of the snaps, which is about his normal workload. His season ended prematurely last year after a neck injury landed him on Injured Reserve twice. Jerry Tillery played a significant amount against a run-heavy offense in the Ravens, so some weeks, Adetomiwa Adebawore may play more because of his interior pass-rush prowess.

The biggest development at linebacker is that Allen didn't play at all. The Colts said his reps would be scaled back initially because he missed a handful of practices during training camp and just wasn't fully caught up yet. However, not playing at all was unexpected. Meanwhile, Akeem Davis-Gaither sometimes looked lost out there on the second level of the defense while playing 94% of the snaps, and Jaylon Carlies failed to register a single statistic despite playing 42 snaps. Allen's fellow rookie linebacker, Bryce Boettcher, played 23 snaps.

"Yeah, we'll get him going," Colts head coach Shane Steichen said about Allen after the game. "Like you said, he was banged up in camp. We're getting him back into that football shape, and then we'll see where it goes from there."

At cornerback, this is only the second time that Sauce Gardner and Charvarius Ward Sr. have played a full game together, as Gardner played every snap, and Ward played all but three. Justin Walley made his NFL debut after missing last year with a torn ACL, and he had some tough moments in coverage, giving up two catches for 67 yards to Ravens receiver Zay Flowers.

This may be a week-by-week situation, but the Colts didn't use as many three-safety looks as anticipated. The expectation was that Cam Bynum and A.J. Haulcy would essentially always be on the field (which they were), but that Hunter Wohler would be used as a dime linebacker or in other situations. Wohler didn't log any defensive snaps, and backup free safety Jonathan Owens was out there for two. Baltimore's power, run-based offense may have influenced this.

According to PFF, Adebawore led the team with two special teams tackles, and rookies Boettcher, Caden Curry, and Tahj Chambers all had one each.