Offense 

While this Colts offense disappointed last season and on paper didn’t make many changes let alone improve as much as you may think they needed to I think there’s hope for what they can do moving forward this coming year. 

Starting with the losses of C Ryan Kelly and G Will Fries both bringing their talents to the Minnesota Vikings IOL. While Fries missed the majority of last season due to injury for them (Fractured Right Tibia) and Kelly missed 7 games as well they both have been really solid starters throughout their respective tenures here, especially Ryan Kelly who has been a great starting C for the Colts for almost a decade now. While these losses do hurt their OL I think they’ll be able to patch the holes successfully with the guys they have on roster currently. Considering it’s been almost a decade with Kelly as the starting C here his impact would normally be felt the most but I really believe in what they have with Tanor Bortolini who looked promising as rookie last season. I’m not saying Bortolini will have the tenure or impact that Kelly had but considering Kelly is 32 and coming off a year of injuries Bortolini may be the safer starting option. At G they look to be moving Matt Goncalves from T to G and are counting on him to step in place of Fries but he’ll be competing with Dalton Tucker who was a UDFA from last season that stepping for Fries after the injury. This RG spot is more concerning in my opinion considering I don’t trust either of these guys to step in and be solid starters for you and when you have one weakness on your OL the whole thing can fall apart before you know it. I love the rest of the line with Bernhard Raimann and Braden Smith at your T spots and Quenton Nelson being one of the best Gs in the league but between Bortolini and whoever they end up starting at G there’s certainly some reasons to doubt what this group will be next season. I just feel they could have pushed a few more resources into finding a IOL piece that could at the very compete in camp for a spot up front but the only addition they made to OL was a 4th Round pick in Jalen Travis (Iowa State) who not only projects as a backup moving forward but also is strictly a Tconsidering his anchor concerns and the fact he’s 6’8 there’s just no way for him to go compete on the interior. 

The next move and position group that has to be addressed and may be the most important piece this coming year for this team is QB. They added Daniel Jones to come compete with Anthony Richardson for a starting job and while neither of those options may excite you it is nice to see them at least adding real competition to a room that has been replacement level guys for years and years now. While Richardson has flashed some really special traits and popped on film for this team every time he’s been on the field he also shows real flaws with consistency throughout his game that makes him one of the most frustrating QBs to watch on a week to week basis in the league. Richardson has all the talent in the world but until he can level out the up and down play and be more consistent reading the field he won’t find any sustainable success in the league. On the other hand you now have Daniel Jones who may not be the most impressive player to watch at the QB position and certainly has his own issues with operating an offense he will give them a higher floor than Richardson does on a week to week basis. While I can’t say I’m particularly excited or optimistic about this room this coming year I do trust HCShane Steichen to design and call an offense that will highlight either one/both of these guys strengths and hopefully that’s enough to get league average play from one of them. 

As far as the “weaponry” goes for this offense the WR and RB rooms are largely the same aside from an addition of DJ Giddens (Kansas State) through the draft and Khalil Herbert through FA with Giddens being a fun change of pace/complimentary back to their Jonathan Taylor and Herbert giving you a solid depth piece to work in occasionally and step up in case of injury. The WR room has been through some up and down play the last couple years, largely due to QB in my opinion, but is really solid group despite not putting up huge numbers. Josh Downs is one of the best young slot WRs in the league, Alec Pierce is a solid deep threat that plays X and eats up press coverage, Michael Pittman Jr is your solid do it all guy, and then you also have AD Mitchell who is very talented but needs to refine his game and ultimately will most likely end up replacing Alec Pierce in that X role and should bring more dynamic play from that spot if he can develop and refine his skills a bit. Where this team really made some changes was to TE and finally they’ve added someone that should be able to consistently impact the game outside of just being a bigger and slower WR. That TE being their 1st Round pick, Tyler Warren (Penn State). The best thing about this fit for Warren and what he’ll be be able to provide this offense is the fact that the Colts have a number of big body in line TEs that can play that role fine which will allow Warren’s versatility to shine in this offense. You can use Warren in a multitude of ways including playing in line TE (so long as he continues to improve his blocking), a move TE that gets the ball in creative ways, slot WR, FB, and even wildcat QB if they want to be creative in short yardage/redzone situations and because of the respect I have for HC Shane Steichen I believe he’ll find a way to really highlight just how special of talent Warren is and the impact he’ll have in all aspects of the game for them. At the end of the day no matter how they deploy Warren so long as they get him the ball and let him shine as the dynamic athlete and special mover at that size that he is they/he will find success. 

Defense 

Defensively this team spent quite a bit of their assets between the draft and FA making over this roster. Adding big money and impactful vets like Cam Bynum and Charvarius Ward to a secondary that desperately needed solidified talent and throughout the draft spending picks up and down the board to fill out everywhere from the DL to S. Collectively they brought in Edge JT Tuimoloau (OSU) who should add a high effort talented Edge player to rotate in behind a promising young edge group already, CB Justin Walley (Minnesota) who I thought was a bit over drafted but has some nice athletic traits and possibly could be a solid option in the slot moving forward, IDL Tim Smith (Alabama) who flashed some nice traits on tape but never found much consistency for Alabama, and S Hunter Woehler (Wisconsin) who should provide a high effort physical box S and special teams player. 

While the front seven is mostly straight forward to talk about as they’re clearly banking on better coaching and some development up front from their younger players to make a difference there the secondary is a whole other story. This Colts defense schematically has been very basic under Gus Bradley and while that works when you have a ton of talent that wasn’t the case for this Colts team but it looks like after they let him go for new DC Jim Bob Cooter they’re finally adding some real veteran talent. Ward and Bynum I believe will have huge impacts on this roster as they’ve needed a true outside CB and a S that has range that can stay healthy for years and years now. Bynum fills exactly what they need for their S room as he’ll allow Nick Cross to play closer to the LOS and make plays in that area and Bynum can fly around over the top of the defense and make plays on balls that this defense never had a chance at before. Ward is an even more important piece to this defense as he’ll finally provide this team with CB that they can matchup on the loaded WR talent in the AFC. It’s not a fix all and they’ll certainly need to be more creative with the play calling and schematics of this defense but having these guys in room drastically changes not only the floor but the ceiling of this defense. 

As for the front seven there’s really not much else to say other than these guys need to find consistency. One game I’d watch and Laiatu Latu, Kwity Paye, Grover Stewart, and Deforest Buckner looked like a really good starting group and then next they would look lifeless out there (other than Buckner who played pretty well all year) and just had no pop whatsoever. Adding Tuimoloau should give a nice boost to the rotation and should allow you to keep these guys fresher as the game goes but whether it’s one of the previously mentioned starters or some of these depth guys like Adetomiea Adebawore, Tim Smith, JT Tuimoloau, Tyquan Lewis, or a group effort from everyone along this DL this group has to find consistency and be able to affect the game on a down to down basis for this team. 

    The LB group lost a key piece in EJ Speed and a few depth players this offseason so it’ll be interesting to see if Zaire Franklin can have a bounce back season and one of these guys whether it be Jaylon Carlies, Cam McGrone, or whoever else along this LB core can step up in Speed’s place. I don’t worry all that much about this group but I could see it being an issue if Franklin has another down year and these depth pieces look like they belong more as depth pieces instead of consistent starting players. 

Overview 

• This Colts team has a lot of question marks and while I like the majority of the moves they made this offseason I feel they have created others in doing so. With a DC and a real competition at QB with Richardson and Jones there’s a possibility this team finds its groove and finally some stability in those areas but unless they do I think they’re once again bound for a mediocre season leaving them stranded in no man’s land so to speak. I don’t see this team bottoming out as I like a lot of the talent on roster and think Steichen is a capable HCand one of the better offensive minds in the league but I don’t know that they’re ready to go push for this division leaving this regime in a very difficult position. I like this team and I see the path for them to have a really solid season but it’s narrow and it’ll be up to some key pieces to develop and a really solid coaching job if they want to get into the playoffs in a very packed AFC.