TAKING STOCK: INDIANAPOLIS COLTS

BY ADAM GREENE

There were high hopes for the Indianapolis Colts heading into the 2022 NFL campaign and I was one of those people holding them. I thought, with the addition of Matt Ryan, brought in from a trade with the Atlanta Falcons, the Colts were easily an AFC Divisional Round team and had a real possibility making it to the AFC Championship. I was very wrong. Ryan was spent, the Falcons obviously made the right call to move him when they did and the Colts suffered from it. Head coach Frank Reich was fired after a 3-5-1 start and replaced by the comically inept Jeff Saturday.

Now, Saturday is a fine NFL analyst. He was also a good player for the Colts back in his day. As a coach, the man had no NFL experience at all, so naming him as the interim was befuddling to say the least.

Still, Saturday’s coaching debut gave us one of the greatest moments of the NFL season. Saturday, matched up against Josh McDaniels of the Las Vegas Raiders, led Indy to a 25-20 victory in what was the most humiliating defeat for any head coach of the NFL season. An honor that only McDaniels contended with again as the season wore on, losing to the Los Angeles Rams in Baker Mayfield’s first start after he’d just been with the team for less than a week. It was all downhill from there for Indy as Saturday and the Colts lost their last seven contests, including one against the Houston Texans in Week 18, a defeat that cost the Texans the No. 1 overall pick.

Matt Ryan ended his season (and NFL career) with a 4-7 record, completing 67.0 percent of his passes for 3,057 yards, 14 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. Jonathan Taylor was only healthy for 11 games and rushed for 861 yards and four touchdowns. He caught 28 passes for 143 yards. Michael Pittman, Jr. led the team receiving, catching 99 passes for 925 yards and four scores.

Yannick Ngakoue (who is no longer with the team… or any team. He’s currently a free agent) led Indianapolis in sacks with 9.5 to go with 29 tackles, eight tackles for a loss and one fumble recovery. Zaire Franklin led the team with 167 tackles with 12 for a loss to go with three sacks, six passes defended and two forced fumbles. Rodney Thomas II picked off four passes to go with six passes defended and 52 tackles.

INDIANAPOLIS COLTS

2022-23 Record: 4-12-1

Playoffs: N/A

2023 Super Bowl Odds: +10000

2023 AFC Championship Odds: +5000

2023 AFC South Odds: +550

NOW WHAT?

The first thing the Colts had to do is settle on a new head coach this offseason and the fact that Saturday was even in the running for that is ridiculous. They decided on Shane Steichen, the losing Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator fresh from a Super Bowl loss. He’s not a bad hire at all, considering what he built in Philly, but there were certainly more exciting hires this offseason. Plus, in the modern NFL, you have to give any defensive head coach hire the side eye, depending on his choice for offensive coordinator. Steichen chose Jim Bob Cooter, former offensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions under Jim Caldwell and Matt Patricia, so, you know, I’m not feeling great about it.

We’re going to talk about the draft, as this was probably the most important amateur player selection meeting for the Colts since they took Andrew Luck since 2012. We also have some free agency to talk about and we’ll get to that. But, I’m going to spoil things a little to say that, if this team doesn’t start Anthony Richardson, their first round pick out of Florida, from Week 1 on, we’ll all, as a civilization, be disappointed.

Going through their schedule, it’s going to be rough. Regardless of if it’s Richardson or Gardner Minshew, Indianapolis will probably be an underdog in 14 of their 17 games at the very least. For that reason, I think a 3-14 season is certainly on the table and a potential No. 1 overall pick. They could possibly win a couple they shouldn’t, which always happens. So let’s go with a 5-12 finish as the max out. Maybe 6-11 if Richardson was actually worth the first-round selection.

THE DRAFT

I could go on about my draft grade, B+, that I gave the Colts a few months ago thanks to taking cornerback Julian Brents out of Kansas State in the second round or Josh Downs, wide receiver from North Carolina in the third. I could even talk about the potential steal that offensive tackle Blake Freeland could represent in the fourth out of BYU, but this entire draft boils down to Richardson. If he hits, this is a home run draft for Indianapolis. If he faceplants, it’s an F-minus and they’ll need to restart from scratch. Frankly, if this team does vie for the No. 1 draft pick in 2024, and that’s entirely possible, I’m not sure how you pass on Caleb Williams out of USC even if you took Richardson the year before. This is why I’m not an NFL general manager.

FREE AGENCY

The Colts are not actively trying to suck. They spent some real cash in free agency, bringing in Gardner Minshew II from the Philadelphia Eagles to potentially start at quarterback, but hopefully be the back up to Richardson. Isaiah McKenzie from the Buffalo Bills joins an already solid wide receiver corps along with fellow pass catcher Brashad Perriman from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Pharoh Brown will plug in at tight end from the Cleveland Browns. On defense, the team added defensive end Genard Avery from the Bucs, defensive tackle Taven Bryan from the Cleveland Browns and edge rusher Samson Ebukam from the San Francisco 49ers. The special teams brought in Matt Gay, kicker from the Los Angeles Rams.

AFC SOUTH

The AFC South could be the worst division in the NFL when the season wraps and only one team, the Jacksonville Jaguars, is making the playoffs out of this group. I don’t see the Colts finishing better than third, but, if Richardson was worth the pick at all, they should be fun to watch.

Follow Adam Greene on Twitter @TheFirstMan.

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