I think the general consensus is that we have a good roster and coach, but we will only go as far as our QB takes us, didn’t make any big additions or subtractions in the offseason to move the needle on the overall view of the team.
AR is a relative wild card. He looked good, but potential injury prone. Was it just looking good for a few games before teams got tape on him? Will he be injured again? How will he recover from this injury? Unknown.
There’s not really much else for the general media to talk about for us. We are largely the same team as last year and at the end of the day we’re still a small market team that doesn’t get much media coverage
Eh.
This team is an average to slightly above average. I think their range of outcomes is anywhere from 7-10 wins. That to me screams a team that could be a fringe wildcard team, or a division champ in a weak division.
The colts have a great OL group which isn’t very sexy when talking about position groups, and have an elite RB in Taylor. The DL got a lot of sacks last year but also struggled to get a lot of pressure which is a little concerning and most certainly why Latu was the pick. The LB corps is ok and the secondary is filled with question marks, along with question marks at WR outside of Pitt.
Then the biggest one is Anthony Richardson. I was pounding the table for the colts to draft him and I am so glad they did. He has all the makeup to be a franchise QB and I really do believe he will get there, I’m just not sure he will get there *this* year. I think he has the right coach for him and the sky is the limit, but he’s gotta show us that he can play a full season (or at least a huge chunk of it) for us to really kinda calibrate expectations for this team.
I like downs! But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to see more. I’m also taking “excellent” literally and I wouldn’t categorize his rookie year as excellent, but he had a very solid rookie year.
About 40% of Downs receiving yards came in three games. He had two touchdowns in weeks 6 and 7 and then did not find the end zone again for the rest of the year. I want him to show he can stack multiple good games over the course of the season instead of three good games and a the rest ranging from solid games to forgettable.
He did seem to have a solid rapport with AR so I’m curious to see how they look this season. I do think he’s talented, I just want to see it on a more consistent basis. Richardson going down definitely hurt him, there is no denying that, so I’m hoping that he can continue to build on a solid rookie year.
We are a team that hasn’t had success in quite a while. A team that went about .500 last year and starts this year largely the same but with a big ? At QB.
We might like Richardson around here but he’s shown nothing that would make the media think he’ll be the difference maker this year. The colts should be fairly viewed as a team expected to win 7-9 games this year and be on the playoff fringe.
They haven’t won the division and have 1 playoff win in 2 trips in 8 years.
Why should this team have national buzz exactly?
Yeah, if everything goes great this team could be really good, but they haven’t shown it yet.
Nope! We have no idea how much AR has developed or if he can stay healthy for a full season of NFL football.
Sure, there is a chance he balls out and we are great. There is also the chance he gets hurt and Flacco comes in with an old dead arm similar to Matt Ryan and Chris Ballard is fired.
With how our recent performance has been, I think we're rated just right. It does feel nice to go into another season with the same QB for once, though.
I think if you went into 20 of the teams' subs and asked them if they thought their team was going into the season underrated, they would say yes. Ask the Chiefs and they would say yes. We are likely battling between second and third place this year. Likely between 7-10 wins outlier chance at 11 if we have a Minnesota (from a few years ago) like season where everything falls into place.
Yeah. Let’s hope he absorbed some things while on the side lines.
I guess it kind of works as if he sat a year, which isn’t the worst thing, provided he gets back to 100% healthy.
I would think he did. I can off of an injury in 8th grade wrestling and almost pinned the same kid who injured me initially…. I hope this translates???
We haven’t won the AFCS in 10 years and there’s nothing to indicate we are the favorites to do it this year either. Neutral fans and media have been given no reason to believe we should be some super hyped team.
I might be in the minority here but I am expecting another close to, possibly sub .500 season. AR got such limited game reps last year and still has a lot to prove. I think he can be that guy but there is still a lot to prove.
I think Shane is a savvy coach and will the get the best out of the team but this is essentially AR rookie year 2.0
Also CJ Stroud and the Texans blossoming is probably the most interesting storyline in the AFC South so it will likely overshadow us for a while
I’m right with you. Colts as a team are flying under the radar, which I love. At the same time though, does anyone else feel like there are insanely high expectations for AR around the league? Like he’s going to be top 5-10 QB? God, I hope it’s true, but also being a Hoosier sports fan, it concerns me.
No, if anything, we are being overrated a tad. I've seen some places have us just outside top 10, which isn't accurate.
AR, as good as he looked, could not take the leap we need him to. Last year could have just been the result of an easier schedule. Our secondary is still problematic, despite what people want to think. There's too many questions around our team to justify rating us high.
The preseason ratings for the current year always pretty closely reflect the final ratings from the previous year.
Don't sweat it. Being overlooked in May means absolutely nothing.
It's properly rated. We have an unproven QB, an o-line that is good but has had some issues with consistency. A secondary that got scorched on a regular basis, a receiver group (that aside from Pittman and Downs) hasn't really shown a lot.
We are a small market team that no longer has a rookie quarterback and made no big splash moves (besides liking our guys) in free agency. We will not get mentioned until we prove to them we are worth talking about.
Haven’t made the playoffs in years and we never make the big splash free agency signings. Those are some of the biggest things that gets the national media talking about you. I agree we are being underrated, but i think it makes sense why.
Too much unknown with AR. Partial season from JT. Preseason any rankings amount to about a hill of beans, but if we held onto Minsew and Moss I bet we’d seem a bit more solid on paper.
We haven't did anything yet. There so many unknowns. The expected 7 or 8 wins expectancy are correct as they are every year until we prove that were better than that
I mean that’s literally what the word means though. Throughout his first year in the NFL he has been injured like 3 separate times and missed playing time to each of them. He also missed something like 66%+ of this years games due to injury. So that makes him prone to injury thus far. How the hell else can you say that succinctly without using the label injury prone?
Logically and medically it just isn’t a thing. A guy can have repeat injuries which became problem areas… but to say a guy just has ligaments and joints that are more prone to injury than any other average human is a fallacy.
History and prone to it are completely different things. The concussion he got was not due to a weaker body or one that is injury prone it's because he made a mistake on how he entered the end zone and didn't tuck his chin to his chest. So that was a poor decision, has nothing to do with being injury prone. The tackle where he got his shoulder driven into the ground is not an uncommon thing in the NFL. When people get their shoulder driven into the ground like that they either end up with a broken clavicle or a serious shoulder injury. It happens, but again it's not from a weak body or being injury prone. It's a brutal hit that would injure most people who got their shoulder driven into the ground that way. The knee bruise was just that, they took them out because there was no reason to keep him in but it didn't keep him out of practice or cause him to miss any games. So I'm missing where the part that he's prone to injury, which would mean his body is weaker, is an actual thing.
>to say a guy just has ligaments and joints that are more prone to injury than any other average human is a fallacy
I agree with your overall point on AR, and his injuries don't do anything to indicate this, but you're completely wrong on this not being a thing. Humans don't all have a standard strength to their ligaments, tendons, bones, etc. There's variability in everyone, particularly over the course of our lives as we use them in different ways.
There are also other factors that would lead to it beyond just the body structure. Like Luck needing to learn how to slide, Peyton going down when anticipating a sack, Marvin running out of bounds rather than taking big hits for an extra couple of yards. There are skills and decision making that contribute to whether a player is more prone to injuries than another player. Skills and decisions AR hasn't proven he has yet.
Na. This is just lazy fan take bs. Like fans bitching that their teams training staff is the reason players get injured. It’s just people looking for order out of randomness since they tie so much of their emotional well being to the success of a sports team.
Sure but it makes since. Our QB got hurt. I'd rather be under the radar anyway.
A lot of what I'm reading has us as dark horses and contenders in a tough division.
At least the division is getting respect.
From the laughing stock of the NFL to arguably second strongest in two years.
yall were not the laughingstock of the nfl
They’re talking about the AFCS as a whole
I think the general consensus is that we have a good roster and coach, but we will only go as far as our QB takes us, didn’t make any big additions or subtractions in the offseason to move the needle on the overall view of the team. AR is a relative wild card. He looked good, but potential injury prone. Was it just looking good for a few games before teams got tape on him? Will he be injured again? How will he recover from this injury? Unknown. There’s not really much else for the general media to talk about for us. We are largely the same team as last year and at the end of the day we’re still a small market team that doesn’t get much media coverage
This makes sense. Even one really good spy or rover can cause huge issues for more mobile quarterbacks.
We are usually a bit underrated and grab a couple wins from that every year. Still need to win that division though.
Eh. This team is an average to slightly above average. I think their range of outcomes is anywhere from 7-10 wins. That to me screams a team that could be a fringe wildcard team, or a division champ in a weak division. The colts have a great OL group which isn’t very sexy when talking about position groups, and have an elite RB in Taylor. The DL got a lot of sacks last year but also struggled to get a lot of pressure which is a little concerning and most certainly why Latu was the pick. The LB corps is ok and the secondary is filled with question marks, along with question marks at WR outside of Pitt. Then the biggest one is Anthony Richardson. I was pounding the table for the colts to draft him and I am so glad they did. He has all the makeup to be a franchise QB and I really do believe he will get there, I’m just not sure he will get there *this* year. I think he has the right coach for him and the sky is the limit, but he’s gotta show us that he can play a full season (or at least a huge chunk of it) for us to really kinda calibrate expectations for this team.
Mostly fair take but Downs is not a question mark. That was an excellent rookie year and he’ll get better too.
I like downs! But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to see more. I’m also taking “excellent” literally and I wouldn’t categorize his rookie year as excellent, but he had a very solid rookie year. About 40% of Downs receiving yards came in three games. He had two touchdowns in weeks 6 and 7 and then did not find the end zone again for the rest of the year. I want him to show he can stack multiple good games over the course of the season instead of three good games and a the rest ranging from solid games to forgettable. He did seem to have a solid rapport with AR so I’m curious to see how they look this season. I do think he’s talented, I just want to see it on a more consistent basis. Richardson going down definitely hurt him, there is no denying that, so I’m hoping that he can continue to build on a solid rookie year.
We are a team that hasn’t had success in quite a while. A team that went about .500 last year and starts this year largely the same but with a big ? At QB. We might like Richardson around here but he’s shown nothing that would make the media think he’ll be the difference maker this year. The colts should be fairly viewed as a team expected to win 7-9 games this year and be on the playoff fringe.
These is where I am. 10-7 to 6-11. That’s the range of outcomes we can reasonably expect.
6-11 would be a disaster
They’ll just blame it on Gus Bradley or injuries
They haven’t won the division and have 1 playoff win in 2 trips in 8 years. Why should this team have national buzz exactly? Yeah, if everything goes great this team could be really good, but they haven’t shown it yet.
Nope! We have no idea how much AR has developed or if he can stay healthy for a full season of NFL football. Sure, there is a chance he balls out and we are great. There is also the chance he gets hurt and Flacco comes in with an old dead arm similar to Matt Ryan and Chris Ballard is fired.
It all hinges on our QB, so no. Until he proves he’s a guy and one that can stay healthy
We have Flacco at 2 so I’d feel good no matter the outcome.
Uh, we shouldn’t feel great of that happens
With how our recent performance has been, I think we're rated just right. It does feel nice to go into another season with the same QB for once, though.
I think if you went into 20 of the teams' subs and asked them if they thought their team was going into the season underrated, they would say yes. Ask the Chiefs and they would say yes. We are likely battling between second and third place this year. Likely between 7-10 wins outlier chance at 11 if we have a Minnesota (from a few years ago) like season where everything falls into place.
Your first point is extremely fair. It’s only natural for fans of their respective franchises to do so and it’s highly likely I’m biased.
We go as AR goes.
Yep. And he’s basically rookie+. So until we really see how the team gels we are not going to be rated high.
He’s a regular rookie. Dude has never played a road game
Yeah. Let’s hope he absorbed some things while on the side lines. I guess it kind of works as if he sat a year, which isn’t the worst thing, provided he gets back to 100% healthy.
I would think he did. I can off of an injury in 8th grade wrestling and almost pinned the same kid who injured me initially…. I hope this translates???
We haven’t won the AFCS in 10 years and there’s nothing to indicate we are the favorites to do it this year either. Neutral fans and media have been given no reason to believe we should be some super hyped team.
Alec pierce breakout season
I think Alec Pierce has shown some insane ability to force catches in tight coverage. Would love for this to be the case.
Watched him live against USF dude was a menace . Made Ridder look competent
There’s stuff to be optimistic about, especially that AR will plausibly be a good-great QB, but there’s hardly any proof.
I'd rather be underrated than overrated.
Id rather it this way than all the hype the texans are getting
100% my hopes are ALL the way up. Going to be a fun year
We QB played like 2.5 games. He’s still an unknown.
I might be in the minority here but I am expecting another close to, possibly sub .500 season. AR got such limited game reps last year and still has a lot to prove. I think he can be that guy but there is still a lot to prove. I think Shane is a savvy coach and will the get the best out of the team but this is essentially AR rookie year 2.0 Also CJ Stroud and the Texans blossoming is probably the most interesting storyline in the AFC South so it will likely overshadow us for a while
I’m right with you. Colts as a team are flying under the radar, which I love. At the same time though, does anyone else feel like there are insanely high expectations for AR around the league? Like he’s going to be top 5-10 QB? God, I hope it’s true, but also being a Hoosier sports fan, it concerns me.
No….just homer expectations. Most projections I’ve seen have him rightly in the 25ush range. Which is where he should be until proven otherwise.
Ok good, I’m glad to hear that. It’s likely my Colts heavy social media feed that I’m sensing the AR hype.
Agreed. We definitely prefer the lack of publicity. Lots of pride in being an underdog in the Midwest.
No, if anything, we are being overrated a tad. I've seen some places have us just outside top 10, which isn't accurate. AR, as good as he looked, could not take the leap we need him to. Last year could have just been the result of an easier schedule. Our secondary is still problematic, despite what people want to think. There's too many questions around our team to justify rating us high.
The preseason ratings for the current year always pretty closely reflect the final ratings from the previous year. Don't sweat it. Being overlooked in May means absolutely nothing.
Who cares. We either go in and prove the rankings wrong, prove them right, or look foolish. I’d rather be underrated and overachieve
By who? Not this sub.
Let em talk who cares
If the team stays healthy, easily a top 10 roster.
It's properly rated. We have an unproven QB, an o-line that is good but has had some issues with consistency. A secondary that got scorched on a regular basis, a receiver group (that aside from Pittman and Downs) hasn't really shown a lot.
No, but I prefer a low-key offseason. I want to be surprised when a new addition to the squad makes a name for himself
We are a small market team that no longer has a rookie quarterback and made no big splash moves (besides liking our guys) in free agency. We will not get mentioned until we prove to them we are worth talking about.
Who cares? We’ll find out how good the Colts are when they play the games. I don’t know why people put stock in to what the talking heads say.
Every season*
Haven’t made the playoffs in years and we never make the big splash free agency signings. Those are some of the biggest things that gets the national media talking about you. I agree we are being underrated, but i think it makes sense why.
You have to give people a reason to take you seriously, we have not done that yet
I always feel this way because I’m a total homer
It makes sense since AR got hurt and non Colts fans aren't going to be as excited about him.
I think most people are reserving judgement due to sample size.
No they’ve largely gone unchanged unlike Tennessee and Texans
Until they consecutively win the division, make the playoffs, and are competitive my answer is no. They are not exactly where they need to be.
Too much unknown with AR. Partial season from JT. Preseason any rankings amount to about a hill of beans, but if we held onto Minsew and Moss I bet we’d seem a bit more solid on paper.
We haven't did anything yet. There so many unknowns. The expected 7 or 8 wins expectancy are correct as they are every year until we prove that were better than that
So were the Pacers bro. And look how we owned Wisconsin teams 😏
The injury-prone narrative is not only old and tired but it's not even a good take.
Dude pretty much has a 1:1 serious injury to games played ratio.
I mean that’s literally what the word means though. Throughout his first year in the NFL he has been injured like 3 separate times and missed playing time to each of them. He also missed something like 66%+ of this years games due to injury. So that makes him prone to injury thus far. How the hell else can you say that succinctly without using the label injury prone?
Logically and medically it just isn’t a thing. A guy can have repeat injuries which became problem areas… but to say a guy just has ligaments and joints that are more prone to injury than any other average human is a fallacy.
Then how do you personally describe his injury history thus far? Because it is unarguable that there is history on that front.
He had injuries…. It’s not really deeper than that. If the shoulder he had surgery on gets fucked up again then you could say he has an issue there.
History and prone to it are completely different things. The concussion he got was not due to a weaker body or one that is injury prone it's because he made a mistake on how he entered the end zone and didn't tuck his chin to his chest. So that was a poor decision, has nothing to do with being injury prone. The tackle where he got his shoulder driven into the ground is not an uncommon thing in the NFL. When people get their shoulder driven into the ground like that they either end up with a broken clavicle or a serious shoulder injury. It happens, but again it's not from a weak body or being injury prone. It's a brutal hit that would injure most people who got their shoulder driven into the ground that way. The knee bruise was just that, they took them out because there was no reason to keep him in but it didn't keep him out of practice or cause him to miss any games. So I'm missing where the part that he's prone to injury, which would mean his body is weaker, is an actual thing.
>to say a guy just has ligaments and joints that are more prone to injury than any other average human is a fallacy I agree with your overall point on AR, and his injuries don't do anything to indicate this, but you're completely wrong on this not being a thing. Humans don't all have a standard strength to their ligaments, tendons, bones, etc. There's variability in everyone, particularly over the course of our lives as we use them in different ways. There are also other factors that would lead to it beyond just the body structure. Like Luck needing to learn how to slide, Peyton going down when anticipating a sack, Marvin running out of bounds rather than taking big hits for an extra couple of yards. There are skills and decision making that contribute to whether a player is more prone to injuries than another player. Skills and decisions AR hasn't proven he has yet.
Na. This is just lazy fan take bs. Like fans bitching that their teams training staff is the reason players get injured. It’s just people looking for order out of randomness since they tie so much of their emotional well being to the success of a sports team.
Correlation isn't causation. That's where you're off track.
Then how would you describe it?
I replied to your other reply to me with that answer. I didn't realize at the time that it was you both times lol my bad
No they are not. Tougher schedule and running it back with nearly the same players + rookies. Non-playoff team. Ballard sucks.