Reviewing how the Colts’ players improved or decreased their position on the team.
Stock Up
Nick Cross
Cross once again led the team in tackles, and now actually leads the NFL in that regard. While that is certainly something to worry for the Colts, because he is making the tackles that Zaire Franklin and E.J. Speed should be the ones making closer to the LOS, it is a good sign for Cross, who struggled for playing time early on in his career and now has established himself as the starting strong safety.
Alec Pierce
Pierce is the only Colts’ receiver that is having a good year so far, and against the Packers he caught a touchdown for the second consecutive week and was the team’s most targeted receiver. His skillset works perfectly with Richardson, but he is also catching those short and intermediate passes.
Jonathan Taylor
Taylor was the Colts’ MVP of the game and finished with close to 150 all purpose yards on just 14 touches. No-one understands why he did not touch the ball more, but Steichen will surely be looking to rectify that in the coming weeks. With Richardson’s understandable inconsitencies the Colts should rely more on their All-Pro caliber running back.
Offensive line
For all the offensive struggles the Colts have been experiencing, the offensive line as a unit has been really good. There are no weak links, they are opening holes for the running game, and they are protecting a mobile quarterback as Richardson surprisingly well. AR was sacked just once on his 64 passing attempts through two weeks, and the pressure rate is really low considering the Colts have one of the highest time-to-throw average in the league. Special kudos to Will Fries, who has flown under the radar but is more than holding his own at right guard.
Stock Down
Anthony Richardson
The long term outlook remains the same, games like this one are to be expected of Richardson as he gets some much needed experience, but basically everything that could go wrong did go awfully wrong. His accuracy issues flared up again, he missed reads throwing the ball, and he made a couple of bad decisions on read options. On the brightside I think it will be hard for him to play any worse.
AD Mitchell / Michael Pittman Jr.
The other wide receivers combined for 4 catches on 11 targets, both had some bad drops, and particularly AD Mitchell seemed to give up on a play when he heard footsteps coming up. I think Pittman will eventually right the ship and the Colts already paid him the big bucks so they need him to start producing like the #1 receiver he is supposed to be. The case with Mitchell is a bit more complicated. How will the snap share look like once Josh Downs returns and with Alec Pierce balling out? After Week 2 my money is on Mitchell seeing the field less.
Zaire Franklin
Another week where the Colts’ run defense fails to show up, and while Franklin is not the sole responsible for it, his stock is down because his calling card is his ability to stop the run. Franklin was never above-average in pass coverage, and does not create many turnovers either. He is a sure tackler that can find running backs in the backfield, but so far that has not been the case.
Matt Gay
Gay missed another kick and it has become somewhat common for him to miss a kick. Since the Baltimore game he is just 28/39, and the record from over 50 is even worse. Having signed the largest contract for a kicker in free agent history, Gay has not been deserving of that amount of money yet.
Shane Steichen / Gus Bradley
The two biggest losers were Steichen and Bradley, who were evidently outcoached by Matt LaFleur. Bradley was most evident because he had all week to prepare for facing a Malik Willis’ offense, and the Packers still rushed all over his defense. He adjusted to a 5-man front late, but the damage was already done by then. The offense also looked the most stale it ever looked under Steichen. There was no intent of getting AR going on the ground and the lack of JT in the 4th quarter was baffling.
