It’s been a strange year for the Colts, with some great highs and some terrible lows. Let’s see how each position group and the coaching staff has been doing this year and give them a letter grade like we’re back in high school.
Quarterbacks
Whether the lack of development on Richardson’s part is his fault or not is up for debate, but what isn’t up for debate is his play has been poor and inconsistent. The flash of brilliance is followed by 2-3 negative plays. He’s missing easy layup throws and making poor reads. While his athleticism can get him out of trouble a lot of the time, it has also led to a couple of different injuries. Richardson’s ceiling is still extremely high, but purely grading the first several games of the year, it’s been very poor on his end.
On the other end, Joe Flacco has played well enough to keep this group out of the Fs, but his most recent performance was very poor and concerning as well.
Grade: D+
Running Backs
When healthy, Jonathan Taylor is a star. If he had played every game, this group would be an A or A+. The only issue with Taylor is he doesn’t get fed enough or goes on stretches where he doesn’t touch the ball, but that of course isn’t on him. The backups have been average at best, but you can’t ask for much more out of the running backs. Goodson has had good explosive runs and catches, but did have a crucial drop in a recent game, which was a stark reminder of his limitations (as we saw last season). Sermon is a good inside hard runner who lacks vision, but not toughness. The group as a whole is very strong and Taylor needs 20+ touches every single game.
Grade: A-
Receivers
This group has been a mixed bag. The emergence of Josh Downs has been remarkable and he’s truly established himself as a star receiver in the league. He can win on short routes, which we knew was a strength of his, but he’s also winning down the field. He is showing #1 receiver potential.
Alec Pierce has had tremendous flashes, but also games with a 0-0-0 stat line. The inconsistency isn’t a major concern as the #2 or #3 receiving option, but with his ceiling, you do want to see a little more production overall.
Michael Pittman has been a major disappointment and the main reason this group is not in the As. He’s clearly hobbled by his myriad of injuries as his effort level is down, his route running is poor and he has some drops. He needs to sit out and rest for awhile to get back to 100%.
AD Mitchell has also shown some flashes, but there’s also been some effort concerns so far. The potential is still very much there and he’s not someone to be concerned about.
Grade: B-
Tight Ends
This group has been invisible for the most part. While the blocking of the group is average at best, the receiving contribution has been non-existent. Some of that has to do with the play of the quarterback, but these guys aren’t running a lot of different routes and aren’t being used consistently from game to game. While that’s on the coaching staff to get them involved more, these guys just don’t have the skill level to be better than the coaching or quarterback play, so when everything around them is down, they are invisible. This group needs a playmaker… badly.
Grade: D+
Offensive Line
There’s been a lot of moving parts on the offensive line, but it’s been a good unit overall. Quenton Nelson is back to being a superstar and should be at the top of the list for an All-Pro spot. To his left has been Bernhard Raimann, who has been very good for the most part, has seen a reduction in the amount of pressures allowed. To Nelson’s right has been Ryan Kelly, who has been a big disappointment this season and when injured was actually outplayed by rookie Tanor Bortollini. With his contract up at the end of the year, it could be Kelly’s last year with the Colts and in the NFL. Will Fries was having a great year before going down with an injury and Dalton Tucker has been fine as a replacement, but is clearly a backup. Braden Smith has been hot and cold, which is not what you expect from someone like him who’s been a dominant right tackle for the past few seasons.
Grade: B
Defensive Line
There’s two versions of this group: one with DeForest Buckner and the one without him, however both groups have been good overall. The one when Buckner is healthy is in the As and a very serious group. The one without him is a high Cs, low Bs type of group. In both groups, Grover Stewart has been a monster this season and on top of being an incredible run stopper, he is providing more value as a pass rusher, creating a lot more pressure on the quarterback. Latu has had some great flashes and his ceiling is incredibly high. Dayo Odeyingbo has also had great flashes some games. What keeps this group out of the As is the lack of consistency from the edge guys and Buckner’s injury.
Grade: B+
Linebackers
It’s very simple: Zaire Franklin and EJ Speed have underperformed. They are good when DeForest Buckner and Grover Stewart are eating up space and gaps so things are up for them to make plays, but when they have to work through traffic and do a bit more on their own, they take bad angles, miss tackles and get caught in bad spots. These two have been very disappointing this season. The reason this group is not in the Ds is because the backups Jaylon Carliess, Grant Stuard and Segun Olubi have all performed admirably when called upon.
Grade: C-
Cornerbacks
The cornerback group has been fascinating this year. Kenny Moore has been fantastic as usual and his play alone keeps this group out of the Ds. If you look at the first few games, this group was a flat out F with Jaylon Jones playing horribly with Lamons, Brents and Flowers also getting torched a few times. Then over the past month, this group has developed nicely and Samuel Womack has been a revelation. So over the past month, this group has been a B and to start the year they were an F, but Kenny Moore has been a B+/A- all season so that’s how I got to a C+ grade overall. The good news is it’s C+ and the arrow is trending up.
Grade: C+
Safeties
Nick Cross has really emerged as a star for the Colts on defense, making plays in the secondary but also in the box as a tackler. He might’ve had some attitude questions early on, but he’s been one of the only consistent players on this defense and someone they need to keep around. Blackmon has been an average safety for the past few seasons and that has remained the same this season as he’s the type of guy who won’t make any big plays, but won’t allow any big ones either.
Grade: B+
Special Teams
Rigoberto Sanchez has been one of the best punters in the league for my money, with some big punts in big moments, plus good placement and consistency overall. The return units have not had any big moments, but the coverage units have at least held teams in check. Matt Gay had a few untimely misses but has been better in recent weeks.
Grade: B
Coaching
This was the toughest grade to give out. On one hand, the Colts are 4-5 and right in the middle of a playoff race so they can’t be anywhere near an F. In my opinion, the offensive play-calling for most of the season has been questionable at best. The things that Richardson has been successful with the most (RPOs) have not been called at all and there’s no good reason why. There have also been games where the Colts randomly abandoned the run when Jonathan Taylor was cooking. On top of all that, the lack of Richardson development can be blamed on Steichen and the offensive staff. So while they’ve had some flashes, the offense has been a disappointment this season and the person who should take the most blame on that is Steichen.
On defense, Bradley’s performance over the first 6 games was fireable. However, over the past few games, he has gotten his act together, with improved play from the secondary, but also more exotic fronts that have garnered more pressure on the quarterback. It’s not a coincidence that the defense has been much improved since Bradley has changed things up. So while the defense has been better in recent weeks, we can’t ignore how bad Bradley and the defense looked in the early weeks with the vanilla playcalling.
Finally, the Richardson benching decision was a massive blunder. Richardson has not played well for the most part, but he was coming off a decent performance against Houston and the reasons for benching were not very clear or well thought out. The team was taken aback because of it. The timing was poor, the messaging was poor and the decision itself was poor as Richardson will only grow with snaps and experience. It doesn’t mean that he’s immune from being benched mid-game if his performance is poor (something I’ve vouched for), but to not have him start every game is just silly at this point as Flacco is not enough of an upgrade to warrant a benching. As I’ve said, if Richardson is having a poor performance, to me it would make sense to put Flacco in to change things up at halftime or in the 2nd half, but to just flat out bench him before the game is just not the sound decision here. If it has to do with maturity, then that’s also on the coaching staff as the emotional development of the players also falls on the team and its culture.
They have failed massively in many areas this year, but they are at 4-5 so it’s not a complete fail.
Grade: D+
Overall Grade: C+
A C+ grade indicates that this is an average football team.
