WESTFIELD, Ind. — The sun dropped by a few times throughout the afternoon, with an extended stay here and there, but the overcast sky otherwise provided a perfect backdrop for the Atlanta Falcons' first joint practice against the Indianapolis Colts on Wednesday at their facility on the Grand Park Sports Campus.

After a brief period of warmups and intrasquad drills, the two teams mingled. Atlanta's defense matched up with Indianapolis' offense on Field 1 while the Falcons' offense and Colts' defense were on Field 2. Given the field setup, watching both at the same time was difficult, if not impossible.

Therefore, today's camp report will spotlight the offense and Thursday's report will focus on the defense. There was a full-team period at the end where all players shared the same field for a thud-speed scrimmage, and I will share some nuggets from that at the end.

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I will also share some additional notes on the offense below, but let's begin with the position group that caught and held my attention the longest on Wednesday: Atlanta's offensive line.

The most newsworthy item from the group was the continuing integration of right tackle Jawaan Taylor, who had missed all of camp until he was activated from the PUP list on August 10. Taylor told reporters after practice that he'd been recovering from a clean-up knee surgery in March and that he's "feeling a lot better now."

Entering his eighth NFL season, Taylor could be an important newcomer for the Falcons, who have two left-handed quarterbacks vying for the starting job. As the right-side protector, Taylor will guard the blindside if either Tua Tagovailoa or Michael Penix Jr. is behind center.

"It's always really tough, seeing your brothers out there playing ball, and you're on the sideline rehabbing," Taylor said. "But I just kept coming in, keeping my head down, working every day. And I had a great team, great group behind me."

Taylor took the field with the first-team offense during the initial 11-on-11 period. To his left was the rest of Atlanta's starting offensive line from last season, and the combination found some early success carving out run lanes for Bijan Robinson and giving Tua Tagovailoa time in the pocket.

When Taylor rotated out with the rest of the starting offensive line, rookie Ethan Onianwa was his initial replacement at right tackle. Opposite him at left tackle was Michael Jerrell, who has worked at both spots and is increasingly getting time on the left side as the Falcons continue to emphasize cross-training. There was even a snap or two where Jerrell replaced Jake Matthews at left tackle while Taylor was at right tackle.

On the offensive line, accounting for every possible combination could prove prudent if attrition takes its toll.

The best opportunity to see the skill of Atlanta's offensive linemen came midway through practice during a period of 1-on-1 position drills. For roughly 15 minutes, the Falcons and Colts battled mano a mano.

After watching every rep closely and as objectively as possible, it appeared to me that the Falcons got the better of the Colts overall. My final tally was 20 wins for Atlanta and 17 for Indianapolis, with a couple of stalemates mixed in. I won't list every single rep here, but I will share some overall highlights.

Sticking with Taylor, the former second-round pick won each of his reps in my book. Two of those wins came against third-year rusher Laiatu Latu, including one where he fired out of his stance and initiated the engagement, which seemingly wrong-footed the Colts defender slightly.

All-Pro guard Chris Lindstrom won his first rep against defensive tackle Colby Wooden before going up against another All-Pro in Colts defensive tackle DeForest Buckner. Earlier in the drill, Buckner had an impressive win against Matthew Bergeron, setting up a nice showdown with Lindstrom. In their head-to-head reps, Buckner's size, length and fluidity left an impression on the Falcons' guard.

"He's tall and long, so he can bring the speed to power with a long arm," Lindstrom said. "He's got the twitch to up-and-under, and he can spin back. And he got me. It was fun. The first one, he jumped offside, showing that he was going inside on me. So I set like he was going inside after the reset, and he went out. The second time, it was fun that I knew. He thought he was going to do the first one. So, a little bit of a back-and-forth there, and it was fun."

Dewberry had a pair of wins against defensive tackle Adetomiwa Adebawore and defensive end Michael Clemons, and he also had a nice stalemate against defensive tackle Jerry Tillery. Kyle Hinton also looked good in a pair of reps against Tillery and Adebawore.

At center, Ryan Neuzil had a strong opening rep against Grover Stewart to shut down his bull rush but was beaten later on by Wooden. Corey Levin had two reps apiece against Stewart and Derrick Nnadi, and he split against both defensive tackles. Rookie James Brockermeyer had an excellent rep against defensive tackle Cam Ball, a fellow first-year, where he engaged early and never let go. Ball got the better of him in a rematch soon to follow, but Brockermeyer also had a good win against Tillery.

Onianwa reset nicely on a rep against defensive end Durell Nchami to score his only win during the period. Similarly, Jerrell came out on top in one rep against Colts fifth-round pick George Gumbs Jr.

The final rep worth mentioning clearly illustrated the influence of offensive line coach Bill Callahan. It featured 6-foot-8, 318-pound undrafted rookie Riley Mahlman, who was lined up against Gumbs on the left side. At the snap, Gumbs set up a speed rush to the outside before quickly trying to catch Mahlman unawares and cross his face for an easy inside path to the quarterback.

To counter Gumbs' approach, Mahlman executed something I've watched Callahan and the assistant line coaches drill consistently in practice. He smoothly took away the immediate threat and set up to defend the speed rush. However, while doing so, Mahlman never opened up too much or overextended himself. He stayed ready for the counter move and smothered it the instant Gumbs initiated the cross-over attempt. It was cool to see a technique practiced in Flowery Branch, Georgia, come to life in a 1-on-1 drill in Indiana.

Notes and Observations

Bijan Robinson looks ready: The first four touches of the Falcons' first offensive drive in 11-on-11 periods went to No. 7, and they all worked out pretty well. Throughout the afternoon, Robinson wowed the fans in attendance and showcased cuts that looked as crisp as ever. His best highlight was a bending-over, one-handed catch on a little bubble route out of the backfield that he never slowed down to make.

Tua pins pick-six on ball placement: On Atlanta's first or second offensive play of the full-team session at the end of practice, Tagovailoa's short pass to Drake London on the left side was undercut by cornerback Justin Walley, who took it the other way for a pick-six. After practice, Tagovailoa chalked it up to poor ball placement and said not turning the ball over is "step number one."

"He had a good break," the Falcons quarterback said. "But I think the ball didn't help either. Just throwing it to his outside shoulder instead of his inside shoulder."

Overall, much of the Falcons' passing game was in the short-to-intermediate part of the field. There was a good downfield connection that featured an excellent up-and-over grab by Drake London, however.

Receivers put on show in 1-on-1s: Atlanta's pass-catchers got off to an excellent start in the first 1-on-1 period against the Colts' cornerbacks and safeties. Creating consistent separation early on, the Falcons caught their first eight passes in the drill. Indianapolis battled back as the series wound on, but it was a good showing from both Atlanta's quarterbacks and receivers. Dylan Drummond, in particular, had a great rep against Jaylon Jones that ended in the end zone.

Tyler Goodson has good day against old team: One of the standouts on Wednesday was the former Colts running back, who has been impressive with the Falcons in training camp. Goodson looked elusive in tight spaces and fast when he got out of them. Donning a competitive demeanor, Goodson looked excited to go up against his old teammates and generated several big runs. He is making a strong case for Atlanta's coaching staff so far this summer.

A snapshot of the secondary: In the full-team period at the end of practice, it was the secondary that was easiest to focus on. Atlanta's first defensive drive ended with a big hit from DeMarcco Hellams on tight end Mo-Alie Cox that jarred the ball loose, which Atlanta recovered. There were also some good pops delivered by cornerback Clark Phillips II, who has been consistently running with the second-team defense and is playing with confidence.

There was debate amongst the gathered media about one play in particular. Colts wide receiver Josh Downs snuck through the heart of Atlanta's defense and appeared to be open for an easy touchdown. Daniel Jones's pass hit Downs at about the 2-yard line, and he walked in for the score. But as the pass connected, Falcons safety Darren Hall bore down on the receiver and was in position for a big hit. In this practice setting, he smartly pulled off of actually hitting Downs, but that left room open for interpretation. Would the Colts have scored an explosive passing touchdown or would Hall have knocked the ball loose at the last moment with a big hit?

We may not learn the answer to that particular question tomorrow, but we will learn a lot more — and the emphasis will be on Atlanta's defense. The two teams will resume joint practices on Thursday afternoon and play a preseason game on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET.