While many Colts players have given fans reason to put their head in their hands, we’ve chosen one as our most disappointing player through the first eight games.
Our pick for Most Disappointing Player of the first half of 2017 is Donte Moncrief.
While he missed close to half of last season due to injury, the former third-round pick has yet to return to his 2015 form when he caught 6 touchdowns and gained over 700 receiving yards.
So far this year he’s logged just 18 catches for 271 yards and 1 touchdown, catching a little over 50% of his targets.
That said he has only been targeted 33 times, which is about 20 less targets than T.Y. Hilton. It is hard to say if this is because the offensive scheme simply doesn’t involve him as much anymore, or if he is targeted less due to a lack of trust.
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Regardless, he is a shell of his former self on the field. He once presented a reliable threat alongside Hilton, but he is now largely defended like a pedestrian NFL receiver.
To say that someone is a disappointing player implies that you expected more of them. We even wrote a preseason piece picking Moncrief as a breakout player this year. So, what exactly isn’t he providing this team that we expected him to?
Part of our disappointment largely comes in the form of leftover displeasure from an injury-riddled 2016.
It has been assumed that Moncrief would be able to live up to his high draft pedigree when healthy, but that hasn’t happened as he’s avoided injury thus far during the regular season.
To be fair the offense can only do so much without Andrew Luck, but that’s not a complete exoneration for Moncrief’s lackluster production.
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Jacoby Brissett is doing quite well in Luck’s stead, and plenty of other offensive players are succeeding along with a backup quarterback. It will take a few good performances for Moncrief to prove that he deserves to be re-signed this offseason as these final eight games are critical for his future with the Colts.