The Indianapolis Colts have righted their ship, at least for now. Shane Steichen’s men won their second straight game last Sunday in London when they beat the Washington Commanders 30-13.
The win has the Colts in second place in the AFC South, one game behind Jacksonville and two clear of both Houston and Tennessee. The situation looks a lot better than it did just two weeks ago, when Steichen was mired in a nine-game losing streak.
Still, enthusiasm is tempered. The most encouraging aspect of Sunday’s win was the improved play of the defense. After giving up 74 points in Weeks 1 and 2, Lou Anarumo’s troops have surrendered just 30 points in wins over Washington and Houston. With winnable games in the next two weeks, the entire squad hopes to build on this recent success.
4 issues the Indianapolis Colts must fix before Week 5
But there are several issues that still need to be fixed. Washington and Houston were both missing their top receivers. Neither has a particularly explosive offense even at full strength. We will see in time whether the improved play of the Colts’ defense is real or a mirage. And we will see if the offense can grow more consistent as they await the return of Alec Pierce.
The defense cannot allow chunk plays
Indy may have held the Commanders to just 13 points, but the defense still gave up too many big plays. Marcus Mariota fooled Arden Key on a read option early and ran for 35 yards. It would have been longer if not for the effort and athleticism of DeForest Buckner.
More distressingly, the Colts’ pass defense gave up plays of 35, 47, and 48 yards, and also surrendered a potentially game-changing 87-yard catch-and-run to Commanders’ rookie Antonio Williams that was fortunately nullified by an illegal shift penalty. And these plays were not made by big names.
A rookie QB, Athan Kaliakmanis, in his first NFL action, completed long balls to Treylon Burks and Dyami Brown. You can bet Aaron Rodgers will be looking for D.K. Metcalf and the recently dangerous Roman Wilson deep this Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Colts offense cannot get deep
Until Pierce returns, the Colts may have to live with the fact that they do not have a credible deep threat. While the rookie Kaliakmanis was launching deep shots, the Colts' longest pass play was a 23-yarder to Ashton Dulin. It was their only offensive play that went for more than 20 yards. Of course, they won the game, so it didn’t matter. But it will in the future.
The Colts simply cannot seem to throw deep. This will have implications for the run game. Opposing safeties will crowd the line, having no fear of Daniel Jones’ ability to make them pay. Jonathan Taylor will find his running lanes more crowded.
This may occasionally result in JT breaking a longer run against a stacked front, but it will be harder to sustain drives if Steichen does not find ways to force opposing defenses to worry about the entire field. Perhaps we will see Darius Slayton against the Steelers. That is a problem he can help solve.
What to expect from Daniel Jones
Speaking of the passing game. I don’t think Daniel Jones is playing close to what we saw last year. He has made a remarkably fast return from his Achilles injury, and he appears to be healthy. But that does not mean he is back at full strength.
Injuries of this nature used to take far longer. The Colts have no other options, so it will fall on Jones to carry them. He can obviously still throw and run, but after four games, he simply doesn’t look nearly as dangerous as he did last year.
By every metric, DJ’s performance is significantly worse than last year. His quarterback rating stands at 73.9, down from 100.2 in 2025. His QBR has plummeted to 37.4 after hitting a career-best 63.0 last year. Both 2026 marks rank him 24th out of 32 QBs.
His Pro Football Focus (subscription required) grade paints an even more dire picture. Before this season, the lowest grade he has ever had was a 63.0. He currently sits at 54.8, 33rd in the NFL.
It is still early and he has not had a healthy Alec Pierce on the field. This could turn around. But it may not, and if that is the case, it signals major problems going forward.
One fairly obvious solution
Given Jones’ struggles and the lack of downfield receiving options until Pierce returns and/or Slayton proves his worth, Shane Steichen needs to make some changes. Right now, the Colts have a better contingent of tight ends than wide receivers, and they want to run the ball a lot. That screams 13 personnel.
They already use three tight ends on just under 10% of their snaps, which puts them in the middle of the league. They also use 12 personnel (two tight ends and two wide receivers) more than most teams.
But I would expect to see Tyler Warren, Mo Alie-Cox, and Andrew Ogletree on the field even more until Pierce is back at full strength. If Will Mallory is able to return from his thumb injury soon, he could add some diversity to the attack.
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