The 2023 NFL season kicks off on Thursday, September 7. However, like most teams, the Indianapolis Colts aren’t hitting the field until Sunday. Indy will open the season at home, hosting the defending AFC South champion Jacksonville Jaguars. It will certainly be a tough challenge out the gate for a young Colts team, but Indy has been getting prepared.
On Tuesday, Indianapolis released an unofficial depth chart for the Week 1 matchup. While the depth chart is unofficial, a couple of things have been made clear. Many of the training camp and preseason storylines now have answers, but several other storylines are opened as the season starts. Let’s take a look at a few takeaways from the unofficial depth chart.
Colts unofficial Week 1 depth chart
The thing that jumped out on the offensive side of the ball is that the starters were listed in 12 personnel, one running back, two tight ends, two receivers. Well, not technically. Indy also listed three starting receivers. However, the inclusion of two starting tight ends shows that the Colts plan for the tight ends to be a big part of the offense, and more than one will be on the field often. That’s expected since Indy currently only has four receivers.
Speaking of tight ends, it was interesting to see that Mo Alie-Cox is still a starter. All offseason, people questioned if he would be able to hold off the talented young tight ends and keep his starting job. Alie-Cox and Kylen Granson are currently listed as the starters, and Drew Ogletree and Will Mallory are the reserves.
Two other position battles that fans watched throughout camp were right guard and slot receiver. Will Fries beat out all the other linemen for the starting right guard spot and rookie Josh Downs is the starting slot receiver over veteran Isaiah McKenzie.
Everything else, for the most part, is as expected. Defensively, all of the expected starters are in place. While there are a lot of veterans in the defensive front, the secondary is young, but everyone knew that would be the case. On Sunday, it’ll be time for that young secondary, and the rest of the depth chart, to prove themselves.