After a bit of time to cool off the emotions after head-coach Shane Steichen and general manager Chris Ballard were retained by the new Colts’ ownership, even despite I would like both of them out of this franchise, it just made sense for CIG to go in this direction given the current state of the Colts’ roster, and the mid-season trade for cornerback Sauce Gardner. Ballard’s contract is up after this season too, so ownership saves a lot of money not re-signing him instead of downright firing him.
I’ll kick things off by saying that I am not high on this team, I am not sold on Daniel Jones yet, my argument here being he has to recover from perhaps the worst injury an athlete can suffer, and that his solid start to the year had a lot to do with facing terrible defenses that had no film on what the Colts were running. I believe that even before the injury the cracks started to show, with the Steelers laying out the blueprint for how to stop the Colts’ offense, and I believe that the defense, despite having terrible luck with injuries, is still 2/3 starters away from being really competent (edge rusher, and two linebackers).
With that said, I think that there are some achievable measures the Colts can take to improve a good football team, and that could finally be the difference between barely missing out on the playoffs to making it there, and as the Patriots showed this year, you never know if luck is going to go your way (spoiler alert, luck literally NEVER goes our way).
Re-sign Daniel Jones / Trade Anthony Richardson
This one is obvious, and it will 100% happen. I guarantee that Daniel Jones will be the Colts’ starting quarterback next season. Whether that is in Week 1, or a couple of weeks later, remains to be seen as he is recovering from a torn Achilles, but every sign points to him being the guy. I’m fine with that. Jones is the first quarterback since Rivers that the fanbase seemed to have a connection to, he lead a viable and consistent offense, and the team crumbled without him. If possible, the Colts should avoid commiting too much resources on him, mainly because of the lengthy injury history, and the latent possibility that a new HC-GM regime would want their own guy at quarterback.
As for Richardson, it is time that the Colts find him a new team. I believe he can still turn around his career, mainly because of how young and inexperienced he is, but it is evident that for his own mental-health he needs a fresh start someplace else. First of all he needs to fully recover from the freak eye injury, but his career could revitalize itself if he gets a second chance someplace else. Also, the team would free up some much needed cap space.
Let Kwity Paye walk and get an impact player at edge opposite Latu
The Colts have set a recent precedent of keeping JAGs around (ehem, Zaire Franklin) on the defensive side of the ball, but in today’s NFL you just cannot have a starting edge rusher that fails to generate pressure. Out of 31 qualified edge rushers with over 400 pass-rushing snaps Paye ranks 27th in pass rushing win-rate, and he has been bad against the run too, ranking 27th out of 35 edge rushers with more than 250 snaps in run stop %. There are not a lot of worse options than Paye at the position, so there are a lot of ways the Colts could go in improving the position. Spend big and bring in Trey Hendrickson, go the experienced route and bring in either Khalil Mack or Joey Bosa as pass-rushing specialists, or even try and draft a guy (though Chris Ballard has been terrible drafting edge rushers in the past).
Restructure/trade/cut MPJ, re-sign Alec Pierce, draft another receiver
While he has been terrible at drafting edge-rushers, Ballard has been solid at getting wide receivers in the draft. Michael Pittman Jr. is not a bad player, and he is a positive leader in the locker room, the problem here is that he is nowhere close to the price he is being paid, with his 9.53% cap hit being the highest on the team. The first option would be a team friendly restructuring if he wants to stay here, if that fails, the Colts could try and trade him to a wide receiver needy team (Raiders, Bills, for example) and get a late round pick, and if all fails, cutting him would end up with just 5 million a year in dead cap for the next two seasons.
With the savings from that move, the Colts should turn around and give that money to the true #1 receiver on the team: Alec Pierce. The White Mamba has gone from a potential cut after the drafting of AD Mitchell, to a deep-threat specialist, to now the Colts #1 receiver.
Cut Kenny Moore/Zaire Franklin
I believe that the Colts need to get some fresh faces on the defensive side of the ball, first one being letting Kenny Moore go. Like MPJ, this one is based purely on price vs. value. Kenny has a 13M cap hit, and has been sub-par the last three seasons, while also dealing with minor injuries last year. 3rd round pick Justin Walley will be back from a torn ACL, while the Colts got decent production from veteran Mike Hilton who could be re-signed for the minimum.
Re: Zaire, what more is there to say here? He was better this season, as Anarumo deployed him more creatively as a blitzer, but his pass-coverage deficiencies are just impossible for the defense to hide, and his leadership leaves plenty to be desired. The Colts would also benefit from at least holding one player accountable for yet another failure. That is my main grift with this organization, they keep failing, and failing, and yet no-one is held accountable. Cutting Zaire would be a step in the right direction.
Get two starting linebackers that are at least competent in pass-coverage
I know this concept might be a complete unknown for us Colts’ fans, but did you know that linebackers can actually be good at covering running backs and tight ends in the passing game? Now I am not asking for two Fred Warners at linebacker, but two guys that do not allow a completion on every single third and long would be great. There is no point in having such great cornerbacks when the linebackers are such an easy target to pick on.
Re-sign Nick Cross
With the starting cornerbacks healthy, the Colts’ defense used safety Nick Cross in the box a lot, more than 50% of his snaps. Having two shutdown cornerbacks, and a rangy safety like Bynum, the Colts can afford the luxury of having just one deep and placing Cross in the box where is a much better matchup against tight ends or running backs in the passing game. Therefore, keeping Cross in a Colts’ uniform is really important because of the versatility he offers. I understand it is going to be difficult, especially taking into account how much money is already invested in the backfield, but he is a really important player.
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