The Colts ended 10-6 last year after starting the year 1-5 producing one of the best turnarounds in recent team history.
As a long time Colts fan, I expected the Colts to do poorly on defense and average a billion points a game but give up a billion and one points every game. However, the Colts lost relatively close games early in the season and never gave up. Thinking back to this time last year Andrew Luck was still not throwing a football, Darius Leonard wasn’t on the team yet, there was a lot of speculation around Chris Ballard’s first year and Frank Reich was the next choice – thankfully – after Josh McDaniels (someone I opposed from the very beginning) went back to New England.
With all that being said, going 10-6 doesn’t seem so bad.
But what will their record be this year? This is something I like to speculate early in the season as the team is still developing for the next year.
The Colts have had a relatively decent offseason. Last year, wide receiver was a position of need for the Colts. Thankfully, Chris Ballard and Frank Reich went after Eric Ebron who turned out to be a steal and a huge mismatch for opposing teams. They also had one of the best drafts since 2012 when they drafted Andrew Luck and Colby Fleener. They drafted Darius Leonard in the second round and he ended up winning Defensive Rookie of the Year while leading the NFL in tackles. This year they added Devin Funchess to complement the deep threat of T.Y. Hilton and Eric Ebron. Funchess is 6’4″ and 225 pounds still in the prime of his career at 24. The Colts also added longtime Kansas City Chief Justin Houston. The pass-rush monster is aging at 30 but Chris Ballard makes smart business decisions and only signs players if they think both parties got a good deal.
With all that being said, I’m going to divide the opponent lists into three parts: Home, Away, and Divisional opponents.
So let’s jump in.