August in Central Indiana. The state fair is underway. The kids are headed back to school. And the Indianapolis Colts are about to lose some preseason games.
The 2026 Colts play the first of their three preseason contests Aug. 13 at the New England Patriots. Indianapolis fans can be forgiven if they choose to look away. The Colts own the NFL’s worst record in preseason games since 2005, when the Peyton Manning-era Indianapolis teams seemed to lose all interest in winning exhibition contests.
The Colts are 27-50 in the preseason since 2005 for a .351 winning percentage. That’s just “ahead” of the Atlanta Falcons, who have a .355 winning percentage over the same stretch (and will visit Indianapolis for a preseason game on Aug. 22).
Worst of times, best of times for the Indianapolis Colts in the preseason
Popular wisdom has it that the Colts with Tony Dungy as head coach and Manning at quarterback never had any success in preseason games throughout the first decade of the 2000s.
That wasn’t always true. Indianapolis won seven of 12 preseason outings during Dungy’s first three seasons with the Colts.
However, Indianapolis dropped all five of its exhibition contests before the 2005 season, and preseason losses became the norm during the remainder of the Dungy-Manning era. The Colts went 4-22 in preseason games between 2005 and 2010, Manning’s last six active seasons in Indianapolis. Not surprisingly, that .153 “winning” percentage was the NFL’s worst over those years.
Indianapolis fans were fine with this. The Colts also won an NFL-best 75 regular season games, won a Super Bowl, and played in another during the same stretch.
Manning departed for Denver in 2012, where his Broncos teams managed considerably more preseason success. Denver went 10-6 in exhibitions during Manning’s four years in the Mile High City.
It’s gotten better - but does it matter?
The 2005-2010 stretch is the reason Indianapolis has the NFL’s worst preseason record over the last two decades. The Colts have been merely below-average in exhibition games (and regular season games, for that matter) since 2011. Indianapolis is 23-28 in the preseason over the last 15 years. That’s a .451 winning percentage, which is tied for 12th-worst in the league.
Does any of it matter? Maybe it does. The list of the bottom five teams in preseason winning percentage since 2005 includes the Arizona Cardinals and Las Vegas Raiders – organizations with a history of struggles in the 21st century.
On the other hand, the bottom five also includes the Kansas City Chiefs, for whom a preseason record of 27-48 since 2005 has been a mere speed bump en route to three recent Super Bowl titles.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Baltimore Ravens, who won 24 preseason games in a row between 2016 and 2023, lead the NFL with a 53-23 preseason record over the last two decades.
The rest of the top five, in order, includes Denver, the Seattle Seahawks, the Houston Texans, and the Pittsburgh Steelers. All five have been consistent regular season performers since 2005. Even the Texans, probably the worst team on that list, have racked up eight division titles.
In the final analysis, if you’ve got the best quarterback in football – as the Colts had with Manning and the Chiefs recently had with Patrick Mahomes – then preseason games don’t matter. If not? Preseason games probably still don’t matter, but it seems it wouldn’t hurt the Colts to win a few more of them.
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