Last Season: 11-5, lost AFC Championship.
Key Acquisitions: RB Frank Gore, WR Andre Johnson, DE/OLB Trent Cole.
Key Losses: RB Ahmad Bradshaw, WR Reggie Wayne, WR Hakeem Nicks, DE/DT Cory Redding, S Sergio Brown.
Addition By Subtraction: RB Trent Richardson.
The Colts are going to lose the Super Bowl.
Why? Because that is how the pattern is shaping out. In Andrew Luck’s first season, the Colts reached the playoffs and lost in the wild card to the Ravens. The next year, they won the wild card, and then lost in the divisional round to the Patriots. Last year, they won the divisional round, and lost in the championship game. Each year takes the Colts one step closer, so naturally the correct assumption is that the Colts will lose the Super Bowl this season. It’s sound logic, folks.
Colts fans should prepare themselves for a long season. There will probably be a few screw ups. The Texans always give them a run for their money in Houston (but never in Indy). The Colts run game is still going to be terrible, and the aging husk of Frank Gore won’t change that. They replaced one old shell of a former all-pro (Reggie Wayne) with another old shell of a former all-pro (Andre Johnson). They also added Trent Cole.
Most importantly, they still have the GEICO Caveman at QB.
Last year, Luck tore up the league through the air, and not only do they have Andre Johnson and T.Y. Hilton, they added Phillip Dorsett in the draft, yet another big WR prospect. Luck is going to bomb the hell out of football fields this season. The question will be who in the AFC do they leave in their wake? Probably the Patriots. Probably the Broncos. Maybe the Ravens or Steelers. Then Seattle or someone in the NFC will show up in the Super Bowl and club them to death.
Super Bowl 51 is for the Colts, though. Book it.
For a more realistic view of the upcoming season, we have a fan perspective from Colts fan “Athanatos”
Any conversation about the Colts 2015 season prediction must always start with the disclaimer: They still play in the AFC South. The AFC South is a magical wonderland where every team besides the Colts is “they are putting the pieces together, they are going to be good soon.” Unfortunately for fans of competitive play within divisions, “soon” has yet to happen. The Texans are the closest to breaking that “soon” barrier, but their lack of a quarterback since inception in 2002 has killed that dream. So, unless J.J. Watt scores three touchdowns on defense, plays some quarterback and scores three more, the 2015 Colts will be the AFC South Champions.
The second point you always need to bring up when talking about the Colts is their decade and half quarterback windfall. In the past 20 years, there have MAYBE been four guys who are “can’t miss, going to the Hall of Fame before the draft, will be awesome anywhere” type guys, and the Colts have drafted two of them. Some would say it was dumb luck the Colts managed to get them… but it takes a special type of good to be terrible at the right time.
So, with all that in mind, any Colts fan who says something negative about their team should elicit a “oh boo f*cking hoo” from any other team, but that would be a rational thought, and fandom is all about irrationality, so here we go: The Colts have zero run defense. Not “oh ha ha yeah that one guy got 148 yards” bad, but so bad that the Colts gave up AT LEAST 80 yards on the ground in every single game but one. They gave up 100+ yards in 10 games. They are also entirely dependent on Andrew Luck. The difference between a Luck Colts team and any other QB Colts team is about 12 wins. The Colts need to defend this man as best as they can, but they are terrible at it. The run game has been historically awful, and Pep Hamilton loves to use it non-stop. Hopefully Frank Gore can turn that around, but that’s a lot of hope on a 32-year-old running back.
In the end, it’s the AFC South. They will be able to pad their record with some easy wins, the offense will score 60 points a game, and the defense will give up 59 points a game. Best case, they beat who they are suppose to and make a run in the playoffs, and the worst case with Luck is a wild card and play a tough team in the first round. Worst case if Luck goes down? I F5 the 2016 Mock Draft daily thinking about a first overall pick.
