Last year, the Colts were one of the most injury stricken teams in the league, having several key players out. This season, they must stay healthy to be where they want at the end of the season.
The Colts have several good players miss significant chunks of time due to injury last year. Obviously the biggest player was Andrew Luck missing the entire season. The team has to avoid big time injuries like that if they are to succeed this season.
They also had injuries along the offensive line. Ryan Kelly got hurt, as did Joe Haeg. The Colts were down to their third string center at one point. You can’t win football games if your offensive line breaks down in from of your backup quarterback.
The defense was ravaged as well. John Simon, Rashaan Melvin, Malik Hooker, and Quincy Wilson were all hurt for large amounts of time. That’s four starters gone. A team can’t succeed if that many of their starters are hurt for long periods of time as was the case for the Colts last year.
Health is a tricky thing. A lot of it just comes down to pure luck. You have to hope you can avoid the injury bug. It bit the Colts particularly hard last year, so they are hoping it passes them by this season. But it’s hard to know how to train to avoid injury.
So far during training camp, the Colts have been pretty physical during their padded practices. This might help their bodies be prepared more for hits when the season starts. But of course you don’t want to over do it and get hurt in the process.
Health will be a big story line to follow all season long for the Colts. It will determine how successful this team ends up being.