The Indianapolis Colts are running it back this season, more so than any other team in the NFL.
Last year was a season of development and ‘seeing what we’ve got’ as the Colts employed the 3rd-youngest roster among all 32 NFL teams. After enough progression to bounce back from a dreadful 2022 campaign, General Manager Chris Ballard and the rest of the Indy brass decided what they had was worthy enough to run it back altogether, but this time with a healthy Anthony Richardson leading the charge.
The Indianapolis Colts lead the way with a staggering 81.7% of their active roster set to return for the 2024 season. Their high retention rate includes that of their practice squad members, which is a night and day difference for some teams.
The #Colts lead the NFL in players returning to the active roster in 2024 while the #Commanders have (by far) the most turnover of any team in the NFLhttps://t.co/f2GFGfU3nj pic.twitter.com/7n6UrKfGdI
— Jason_OTC (@Jason_OTC) September 3, 2024
For example, they are 3.4% higher than the 2nd-placed Dallas Cowboys (including 2023 Practice Squad) and 7.9% higher than the Cleveland Browns (excluding 2023 Practice Squad).
The Colts lead the league in this statistic given they are the only team retaining 80%+ (regardless of practice squad members), however, they are 1 of just 4 teams to bring back more than 70% of their active roster from 2023. The Colts under Ballard have utilized the NFL Draft as its main source of roster addition but even their 81.7% retention rate is a unique case study.
With uninspiring outputs in 2023 from certain position groups such as Cornerback and Safety, many have questioned Ballard and Co.’s decision to ‘run it back’ in these specific areas. Still, only time will tell if betting on ‘his guys’ will pan out as it did from 2022-23 when the same OL from their disastrous collapse was trotted out again in 2023 only to rebound back into a Top 5 unit.
