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Colts special teams ranked as one of the best in the NFL

By Jaleel Grandberry

Indianapolis Colts linebacker E.J. Speed (45) celebrates with Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Ashton Dulin (16) after Speed picked up a blocked punt and ran it in for a touchdown Sunday, Nov. 14, 2021, during a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Indianapolis Colts linebacker E.J. Speed (45) celebrates with Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Ashton Dulin (16) after Speed picked up a blocked punt and ran it in for a touchdown Sunday, Nov. 14, 2021, during a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. /
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The Indianapolis Colts special teams are viewed as one of the best in the league in end-of-season rankings.

There are three units to a football team: the offense, the defense, and the special teams. Offense and defense typically get most of the glory but if you follow football long enough, you’ll see just how pivotal special teams is.

Fortunately for the Indianapolis Colts, they have one of the best special teams units in all of football. This was evident throughout the season, but it was recently validated in end-of-season rankings.

Rick Gosselin, of Sports Illustrated, recently released his annual special teams rankings and the Colts were no. 2. Second-best in the league behind the Baltimore Ravens.

https://twitter.com/colts/status/1472383000394481669?s=21

Colts ranked as second-best special teams in the NFL

Gosselin has 22 different categories where he ranks each team from best to worst. That creates a point system, one for best, 32 for worst. The team with the least points after each category is added is the best.

The Ravens were No. 1 with 241.5 points but Indianapolis finished with 272 for its overall ranking of No. 2.

The Colts were tied at No. 1 in the points scored category and that’s due to their ability to block punts and return them for touchdowns. Indy was also tied for No. 1 with the most takeaways, a theme for this Colts team.

A category that Indianapolis held sole possession of the top spot is penalties, only having just two penalties for 25 yards. Extremely impressive and disciplined.

This is Indy’s second-consecutive year in the top-five of special teams rankings and the consistency can be attributed to some key players dominating yearly.

Long snapper, Luke Rhodes, was named to the Pro Bowl this season and made his second-consecutive All-Pro team. Ashton Dulin continued his dominance on special teams even as his role increased on offense. He also is a 2021 All-Pro, selected to the second team.

George Odum, who was First-team All-Pro last season, didn’t get any selections this year but he was still a staple on the unit. Then there’s Zaire Franklin who is the captain of the special teams and EJ Speed who scored two touchdowns this season.

The Colts are lucky to have such a quality group of special teams. This one-third of the game has more control of the outcome than they are often given credit for.

Indianapolis is in a good position knowing that its special teams will more often make the game-changing plays that benefit Indy instead of costing it the game.

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