With the recent retirement of Andrew Luck, a lot of people don’t expect much from this team. They are expected to be a .500 ball club. But will that be the case?
The Colts were preseason darlings. They had a great overall roster that was going to allow them to make a push for a Super Bowl this season. But with their franchise quarterback announcing his stunning retirement, the expectations around this team have now changed.
Instead of having those Super Bowl aspirations, most people expect the Colts to be an 8-8 football team. No one expects them to win the division, and certainly no one expects them to make the Super Bowl. They are once again the underdogs that they were a year ago.
The difference is, this team has experience being the underdog. No one expected anything from this team a year ago, and then they went to the playoffs. People now expect this team to be worse, so they have nothing to lose this season.
Because of that, expect the coaching staff to be extremely aggressive all season long. They no longer have the weight of expectation on their shoulders, so they are free to do more of what they want. This could be a good thing, or a bad thing, depending on the situation.
Just because the Colts defied expectations last year doesn’t mean that they will this season though. They still have to replace a generational talent at the most important position in football. Winning games will not be easy, especially at the beginning of their schedule.
If I was a betting man, I wouldn’t put any money on the Colts one way or the other. Conventional wisdom says this team won’t contend and will hover around that .500 line. But my eyes also tell me this is a better overall roster than it was a year ago, minus the QB position.
This season is as tough a season to forecast as I can remember. But we will have our answers soon enough, as the first game is finally Sunday.