The Indianapolis Colts continue to struggle and underwhelm this season despite three of Indy’s players having really great seasons.
The Indianapolis Colts have sputtered along to a 4-6-1 record, losing their most recent game at home to the Philadelphia Eagles, 16-17. They have also undergone a head coaching change, moving on from Frank Reich and naming Jeff Saturday the interim head coach. This and other factors have led to the Colts having an all-around disappointing season.
However, that hasn’t stopped some players from showing out this season. While it may not be hard to stand out on a team that is underperforming, three players, in particular, are having a tremendous season in their own right despite the poor overall performance of the team.
3. DT Grover Stewart
Grover Stewart is close to having the best season of his six-season career in 2022. In 11 games played he has 53 combined tackles, 38 solo tackles, and three sacks. If you average these stats out and expand them to the full 17-game slate Stewart would have a little over 4.5 sacks, almost 82 combined tackles, and 58 solo tackles. All of these would be career-highs by a large margin. Where he sits currently, he has tied his career high in combined tackles, eclipsed his career-best in sacks, and is two solo tackles away from tieing a career-best there.
In addition, he has filled the stat sheet in other columns including pass deflections, stuffs (defender tackles opposing player at or behind the line of scrimmage, and kicks blocked. He currently has tied his career high in pass deflections at two, has almost doubled his career-best in stuffs at 12, and recorded his first career kick block.
This is all while playing with the two-time Pro Bowler DeForest Buckner, who is having a good season in his own right. Buckner draws so much attention that Stewart is able to get, at times, a one-on-one matchup and wins. While Buckner is ahead of Stewart in sacks (5.5), Stewart is outtackling Buckner in both combined (48) and solo (25) tackles. His best game of the year so far was on the road against the Tennessee Titans in Week 7 where he had 12 combined tackles and seven solo tackles.
He has been a bright spot on what otherwise has been a bad team. The Colts’ defense has been playing well, while the offense continues to struggle. However, Stewart’s performance this season should have been saved for a contending team where his defensive prowess could come in clutch. Nevertheless, Stewart is under contract for one more year with Indianapolis before he could potentially hit the market, but his recent play would make him a priority in the offseason.