The Indianapolis Colts are through training camp and two preseason games, and things look bleak. That is the negative part. The positive is that the outcomes of preseason games don't matter.
What appears clear is that Indianapolis needs its starters back. The backups aren't good, and they lost badly against the Atlanta Falcons' backups. This implies one team has built good depth and the other has a general manager likely entering his last season at his current job.
But now is not the time to get miffed quite yet. The Colts have an entire season ahead of them, and one that needs to be successful for the general manager and head coach. There is hope, sure, and there is a chance the season completely falls apart.
Preseason lessons learned about the Indianapolis Colts so far
Lesson 1: General manager Chris Ballard knows starters but doesn't know depth
Ballard, despite his lack of overall success, has gotten a lot of credit from NFL analysts for his ability to find good players in the draft. The narrative seems false, however, based on the fact that the team hasn't made the playoffs but twice since 2017 and not at all since 2020. Teams with good draft picks don't go a half-decade missing the postseason.
The positive part is that once the starters are playing again in real games, the team will look different. What has been exposed in the preseason is that the Colts lack quality depth. The outcomes of the games don't matter, but the battle for roster spots does. Indy doesn't seemingly have a lot of backups worthy of taking spots. That's on Ballard.
Lesson 2: The inside linebacker position is a mess
Ballard made it his goal to get younger and more athletic on defense, especially. That included an overhaul at inside linebacker, and the Colts traded longtime starter Zaire Franklin as part of those moves. Through most of the preseason, though, Indy is clearly looking for players to man the two off-ball LB spots, and not finding them yet doesn't mean an abundance of talent.
Instead, second-round pick CJ Allen has been injured twice, and when he did play in preseason Week 2 against the Atlanta Falcons, he didn't look necessarily good. The middle of the defense might be bad again, and the starters might not be locked in until the middle of the season.
Lesson 3: The defense might be a wreck
Let's be real: Defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo gets a lot of praise for being able to game plan from week to week, but if Anarumo were truly a gifted DC, wouldn't he have had units rank in the top 10 of statistics consistently? One cannot blame a constant lack of talent for underwhelming results.
Once in his eight years as a defensive coordinator, Anarumo's defenses ranked in the top half of the league in yards allowed and points allowed, and that was in 2022. In most seasons, his defenses have ranked in the 20s in those categories. That isn't winning football. If Indianapolis is to make the postseason this season, Anarumo needs to prove he can be a very good DC.
Lesson 4: Indianapolis shouldn't have let Tyler Goodson go
The Indianapolis Colts have one of the better running backs in the NFL in the person of Jonathan Taylor. Indy might have also stumbled onto a good back by taking Seth McGowan in the seventh round of the 2026 NFL Draft, but after those two remains a mystery.
The team chose DJ Giddens in the 2025 draft, but his fit in the offense is iffy. Goodson might have been the same, but he showed exactly what Indy is missing when the Colts lost to the Atlanta Falcons in preseason Week 2. Goodson was fast and quick, and ran for 59 yards on six carries, which included a 49-yard TD scamper. Maybe Goodson should have stayed, and Giddens should have been released.
Lesson 5: Sauce Gardner might be great but was too expensive
To be clear, nothing about Sauce Gardner implies he isn't an elite cornerback. He is. But the problem might be that what Indianapolis gave up for a cornerback might have been far too much, as the Colts have too many needs. The New York Jets received two first-round choices from Indy, and Indianapolis could have kept those and taken edge rushers or a wide receiver.
To make matters worse, while the Colts did sign Keenan Allen in free agency recently, and he should be a great fit in head coach Shane Steichen's system, that will probably be for one year. Adonai Mitchell is trending toward a fantastic season with the Jets (he was part of the Gardner trade), and if Indianapolis gave him more time to develop, the signing of Allen might not have been needed.
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