T.Y. Hilton to Donte Moncrief: 'Go get it'

INDIANAPOLIS – The challenge was issued by the three-time Pro Bowler, the established star, the teammate and friend and mentor Donte Moncrief affectionately refers to as “big bro.” T.Y. Hilton didn’t mince words that day.

Does his understudy deserve a fat new contract?

“If you want that money,” Hilton declared, “go ahead and go get it.”

Moncrief heard that. Moncrief liked that.

• MORE: 'Grind or get ate': The rise of Donte Moncrief

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“That’s a big boost for me,” the Indianapolis Colts’ fourth-year receiver said. “He knows the potential that I got. Obviously he wants me to be here with him.”

Hilton’s sparkling résumé is one Moncrief chases – this is, unquestionably, T.Y.’s receiving room. He’s a three-time Pro Bowler, the 2016 NFL leader in receiving yards, the playmaker that opposing defenses must game plan around every Sunday. The torch was passed from Reggie Wayne to Hilton in 2015; Hilton has proven a worthy successor.

Moncrief, entering his fourth season and the last year of his rookie contract, remains an unpolished product. At his best – which he was at times last fall – he’s a lethal red-zone threat, among Andrew Luck’s favorite targets inside the 20. His 13 touchdowns over the past two seasons speak to that. Hilton has just 11.

But unlike Hilton, Moncrief is not a complete receiver, not yet, and he knows it. In his previous 23 games, Moncrief has just one outing with more than 75 receiving yards. (Hilton has had 12 over the same span.) Moncrief fought through a litany of injuries last fall, missing three games early in the year with a fractured shoulder blade and the Week 17 win over Jacksonville with another shoulder injury.

After returning home to Mississippi earlier this offseason, he’s healed, healthy and hungry heading into his fourth year. It’s a big one. He knows it. He welcomes it. New General Manager Chris Ballard is reshaping this roster, beefing up competition at every position group and offering the holdovers a clean slate, and a challenge. Time to go earn it.

Moncrief will have to prove himself all over again. He’ll have to prove he’s worth an extension.

“My main thing is just showing them I’m worthy,” he said Tuesday, sounding very much like a man anxious for the opportunity. This is a player, after all, who scripted his football creed across his left arm in massive, tattooed letters: GOGA. Grind or get ate.

“I know what I can do and I know what I’m capable of.”

Moncrief also made this clear: He wants to break open more plays, something the Colts forecast from the prodigiously talented receiver when they drafted him in the third round in 2014. Moncrief lacks nothing physically. He’s got the speed and the size to be disruptive all over the field. But there’s no denying the obvious: While Hilton and tight end Jack Doyle became Luck favorites across the middle of the field last season, Moncrief did not.

Why does the majority of his production come inside the red zone?

It’s a label Moncrief intends to shed this season. Strictly a touchdown guy? He wants to be more than that.

“This year is big on yards after the catch,” he said. “I’m a big receiver, big body. I just have to make plays with the ball in my hand, not just in the end zone, like on slants and things. Take one (missed) tackle and take it to the end zone.”

In just a few weeks’ worth of work, he has left an impression on the Colts’ new receivers coach, Sanjay Lal.

“He can be one of our best route runners,” Lal said of Moncrief. “He really understands footwork, body position and he’s really good (coming) out of his breaks. He’s got all the tools to become a really impressive route runner.

“Really, for him, it’s about consistency and bringing it every day.”

Moncrief intends on doing as much. It could decide whether or not he’s with the Colts 12 months from now.

“This offense will be very dominant this year,” he predicted. “We've got a lot of young guys who are ready to make plays. The way we come in every day now, man, it’s impressive. We’re really ready to go.”

Lal likes what he sees. Even more, he likes what Moncrief could become.

“I don’t know how he was coached and what was demanded of him in the past,” Lal said, “but all I know is with me, it’s a blank slate. And I see this piece of clay that can be one of the better receivers in this league.”

Do that, and Donte Moncrief will have no problem getting that extension.

Call IndyStar reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134. Follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.