Jump to content
Indianapolis Colts
Indianapolis Colts Fan Forum

Who are the playmakers?


jskinnz

Recommended Posts

Who are the playmakers on this team? The guys who give worry to the other teams coordinators? The explosive players with enough athleticism to beat the guy in front of them without having the rely on scheme - just win a one on one match up? Or the guy who can create separation with their speed or quickness?

I would maintain they have precious few.

Luck - not started out great this year but he is # 1 far & away. Have seen his will overcome issues of his own creation or what I think is a lack of talent around him too many times for this season's start to be nothing more than the exception.

Hilton - needs to catch the ball better but he is the guy in the WR corps that I think gives defenses the most trouble. Wayne - my favorite all time Colt but he can't get separation anymore. Neither can Nicks.

Defense - I really only see two and that is both corners. Davis and Toler while not the best combo in the league are a good tandem that affords the Colts the ability to play agressively on defense and will be key in their obvious need the D now has to blitz to generate pressure.

This does not mean that they don't have other good players but just that the roster is not stocked with elite talent. I see the RB's as good players but not explosive. The TE's are good but are they truly great athletes? I would say no. No D linemen stand out to me as disruptive nor does a LB corps (note the correct use of the word) without Mathis.

For this team to win, the QB has to overcome deficiencies all over the place. When he is pedestrian, so is the team. I think a huge key going forward will be the development of Moncrief and Rogers - if he can ever get on the game day 46. Those guys have talent and are athletes that Wayne and Nicks are no longer. They will have develop quickly this year.

So there it is. Fire away.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Luck

Hilton

Nicks...When he is giving full effort....There were times it looked like he slowed up on some routes...including the 1 on the final play of the game for Colts on offense

Moncrief has shown he can make plays when targeted

Rodgers

Davis

Mathis

Toler

Khaled Holmes for his position...Though I wonder how he will be when he returns to action

Dwayne Allen and Coby while they don't have Jimmy Graham athleticism they have enough athleticism to do damage

Freeman has proved he is a playmaker...unfortunately just has not been healthy most of this year and is out vs the Jags Sunday

 

If we are talking elite physical talent and not taking into consideration the mental aspect of the game, We have enough physical talent but much of it is raw in some form or another...But of course with physical talent ya can never have enough

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is my biggest problem with the defense we have a bunch of really solid to good guys mixed in with a pretty good corner in Davis and a sack master in Mathis. While Davis is a good corner he doesn't come up with picks, so we really only have one true playmaker on defense and he's hurt and getting old by NFL standards. That's not good. I think Grigson has to look pretty hard at getting the Colts a playmaker or two on defense this off-season. That will probably mean over spending to get him here but the Colts just can't depend on Mathis alone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Who are the playmakers on this team? The guys who give worry to the other teams coordinators? The explosive players with enough athleticism to beat the guy in front of them without having the rely on scheme - just win a one on one match up? Or the guy who can create separation with their speed or quickness?

I would maintain they have precious few.

Luck - not started out great this year but he is # 1 far & away. Have seen his will overcome issues of his own creation or what I think is a lack of talent around him too many times for this season's start to be nothing more than the exception.

Hilton - needs to catch the ball better but he is the guy in the WR corps that I think gives defenses the most trouble. Wayne - my favorite all time Colt but he can't get separation anymore. Neither can Nicks.

Defense - I really only see two and that is both corners. Davis and Toler while not the best combo in the league are a good tandem that affords the Colts the ability to play agressively on defense and will be key in their obvious need the D now has to blitz to generate pressure.

This does not mean that they don't have other good players but just that the roster is not stocked with elite talent. I see the RB's as good players but not explosive. The TE's are good but are they truly great athletes? I would say no. No D linemen stand out to me as disruptive nor does a LB corps (note the correct use of the word) without Mathis.

For this team to win, the QB has to overcome deficiencies all over the place. When he is pedestrian, so is the team. I think a huge key going forward will be the development of Moncrief and Rogers - if he can ever get on the game day 46. Those guys have talent and are athletes that Wayne and Nicks are no longer. They will have develop quickly this year.

So there it is. Fire away.

 

You got it right.

We actually got quite a few plays last season out of Freeman in games his D-Line were doing their jobs.

We are in a hurt on D with these safeties and DQJkson.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Freeman, definitely. He's a good blitzer, he causes fumbles, he finds the ball carrier. Not a Pro Bowl kind of guy, but I'd call him a playmaker.

 

But yeah, particularly on defense, we don't have a lot of playmakers. Part of that is the nature of our defense, where the linemen are primarily responsible for controlling blockers, not shooting upfield. Some 3-4 linemen are big time playmakers, but the majority of them are lunch pail guys who go unnoticed. Landry was supposed to be a playmaker, but he hasn't been. And we haven't spent a lot of draft resources on defensive players, so I don't know where the playmakers are going to come from. Werner is the highest defensive draft pick on the team, and he has a lot of work to do. I like Newsome, but as a fifth round pick, I can't get too excited about his future until he starts producing. I like Hughes and Chapman, but I don't think they'll ever qualify as playmakers.

 

On offense, I think Luck and Hilton are enough. We have some other guys with potential to make plays, some other guys who are reliable when called upon (Bradshaw, Wayne, Nicks, Allen), and that's fine. So long as we have decent line play and can run the ball effectively, Luck can operate. It would be nice to have that one X-factor kind of guy, but no one has proved to be that game changer that puts defensive coordinators on edge. Just Hilton, and if we could run screens worth a damn, we might be able to weaponize him more effectively. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think picking out guys on D would be easier if the front 3 were more able to create up front. It's a fine line between the secondary giving them a chance to get after the QB. If the QB is on his spot 3 of the CB's can lock up, but not forever and I think we've seen enough of that from good offense the last two weeks. I'd like to say that Freeman, Butler, Davis are guys you can count on to get some take aways. But it's not happening. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hilton is the best playmaker on the team and one of the best deep threats in the league. When he plays well we usually win, when he doesn't we lose. He's been open at times, on the last play of the Broncos game he was open on a 15 yard deep out on the right but Luck didn't see him. I also want to see Moncrief get in more plays because we could use more speed on the field.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...