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TERRE HAUTE – Center Jeff Saturday departed the Indianapolis Colts’ first practice of training camp Friday and made a simple declaration: “It’s just odd snapping the ball for another quarterback.”
It certainly looked strange.
For the first time since 1998, Peyton Manning wasn’t taking the bulk of the snaps at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. He was at his Indianapolis home recuperating from knee surgery, hoping to be back in time for the regular season.
That put the spotlight squarely on Sorgi, a backup the last four seasons.
“It’s nice to get some attention,” Sorgi said. “But it’s bad it had to come because one of my friends got hurt. But Peyton’s such an ironman; he’ll bounce back.”
Though he’s been a constant on the roster since being drafted in the sixth round out of Wisconsin in 2004, Sorgi is relatively unaccustomed to throwing the ball to Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark and Marvin Harrison, who created a buzz by practicing Friday after missing 11 games last season with a knee injury.
“My approach doesn’t change,” said Sorgi, who usually gets only a few snaps with the first-team offense. “What I’m going to do here is going to change a little bit; I’m going to have a lot more responsibilities. Now it’s my job to get the (starters) ready, so that when (Manning) is ready to come back, they’re ready to go.”
Sorgi, 27, has played in 14 regular-season games with the Colts, completing 61.1 percent of his passes for six touchdowns and one interception. But most of that was mop-up duty or in meaningless late-season games.
The Colts have also signed quarterbacks Quinn Gray and Jared Lorenzen.
“Without Peyton, there was less talking, less animation out there,” Wayne said. “I heard the birds chirping today, and we usually don’t hear that out there because he’s always saying something.”
There was a roar from the fans, however, when Harrison caught a slant pass from Sorgi and took it through the defense. Harrison didn’t speak with reporters, who wanted to know about his knee and his alleged involvement in a Philadelphia shooting. Harrison was interviewed by police about a shooting near his North Philadelphia carwash in the spring but wasn’t arrested or charged.
Harrison had 20 catches for 247 yards and one touchdown last season, then played limitedly in the playoff loss to San Diego.
“It looked like Marvin, the same old No. 88, the same quiet Marv,” Wayne said. “He looked fine. … He hadn’t been in the huddle for, you know, months. So, he probably felt the same way I did – rusty. But when the time comes, I’m sure he’ll get back in the flow of things.”
Sorgi, on the other hand, has got work to do before the first preseason game, Aug. 3 against the Washington Redskins in Canton, Ohio.
“This is a great opportunity for Jim Sorgi,” Manning said by phone. “I’ve always kind of felt badly for Jim. In (past training camps), he was playing with a lot of guys who weren’t going to make the team and probably didn’t block for him real well, never made a whole lot of plays for him. He’ll have a chance now to get some repetition with the first team and to get some solid protection, and that’ll be more fair for him.”
jcohn@jg.net
