5 biggest success stories for the Indianapolis Colts in 2023

4. The way this team battled through injury

Injuries plagued the Indianapolis Colts in 2023, and it was a whole season of a next-man-up mentality at just about every position on the field. These issues appeared in a major way before this team suited up for its first regular season game. This team did not see star running back Jonathan Taylor play until October and this was all brewing on top of contract disputes for the year. They also lost receiver Ashton Dulin to an ACL tear in August, so this receiving core was missing a solid piece to start the year, not great for a rookie quarterback.

And we have already discussed the injury to Richardson himself, but this was just the beginning of what happened for this season. Jelani Woods was supposed to have a breakout year, but he ended up on IR with hamstring issues, and Evan Hull, who was supposed to be a rookie that helped out during Taylor's absence, suffered a knee injury at the beginning of the year before he got a chance to get off the ground.

Injuries also plagued the secondary with too many to mention, but several players stepped up in the absence of others. Tyler Goodson and Trey Sermon taking the full workload in the Pittsburgh game for a win was a phenomenal story. Seeing this team find diamonds in the rough when it comes to this secondary following a slew of injuries led to great stories as well.

Injuries are a part of the game, but when you have players play their best ball because they know they have to, that is what makes for great success. If this team is healthy next season, they will have a ton of players who know what it is like to have to deal with losses around you, so that adversity will only make this team stronger in the long run.