Several NFL experts predict how many games the Colts will win in the 2023 season
The 2023 schedule has officially been released, so how many games will the Indianapolis Colts win? Several experts give their record prediction for Indy.
The Indianapolis Colts will play a 2023 schedule that includes nine home games and eight road games, including a game against the New England Patriots in Frankfurt, Germany. Although Indy is coming off a 4-12-1 season, there are reasons to be optimistic for this upcoming season. One reason is that Indy has the fourth-easiest schedule in the league.
However, strength of schedule is determined by teams’ record from the previous season, and the NFL has continuously proved that each season is its own entity. Success in a previous season doesn’t guarantee anything, and teams can always turn their franchise around quickly. With that being said, what should we expect from the Colts in the 2023 season?
In the official Horseshoe Heroes’ game-by-game prediction, we projected that Indianapolis finishes the 2023 season with an 8-9 record. That would be a significant improvement from last year. What do other experts think? Let’s take a look.
Experts predict Colts 2023 record
Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report did a win-loss prediction for every NFL team after the schedule was released. For Indy, Knox predicted that the team would finish 6-11. Knox believes that Indy’s “offense could be unexpectedly dangerous this season,” because of Anthony Richardson’s running ability. However, Knox concludes by saying, “fans should expect some growing pains.”
ESPN’s betting analysts saw a similar season for the Colts. Looking at every team’s over/under win total, Indy’s was projected at 6.5. Erin Dolan predicted that Indy can get more than six wins, saying, “The Colts have enough to get over 6.5 wins with Steichen expected to fix the offensive issues and the defense continuing to be middle of the pack.”
FOX Sports wasn’t so optimistic. In their win-loss predictions piece for every team, the Colts were predicted to finish with a 5-12 record. Ben Arthur argued that the win total is low because the 2023 season will be spent developing Anthony Richardson.
Cynthia Frelund, NFL Network Analytics Expert, used an advanced model to run simulations for the 2023 season to project a win total for each team. Indianapolis was projected to win just 5.6 games, which was the lowest in the AFC.
So, 2023 has a chance to be another rough season for the Colts. But ultimately, wins and losses are decided on the field in the fall, not by analysts in the spring. This time last year, Indy was predicted to be a top team in the league; we saw how that played out. We’ll see if Indianapolis can surpass expectations this season.