cjwhiskers

Well said, couldn't agree more. I've been trying to scream it from the rooftops for awhile now. If you listen to Ballard's most recent presser he even goes on to say that it's a misnomer that even the best teams don't have holes. All teams have strengths and weaknesses. Winning can be done a variety of ways and any fanbase including this one can definitely be overly critical. I think this squad will be both more consistent and a more sound football team. I really like our chances at being competitive against the top teams in the NFL this upcoming season. If we stay healthy, who knows how high this team can go. We have plenty of the pieces. Far more excited and confident going into this upcoming year than I was last season.

So I've been posting positive comments in all of these other threads that are filled with doom and gloom fans...I thought to myself damn, I should just start a thread to talk about the positive and what people are excited about for the year. I've noticed this thread several times and my mind just instinctively was reading it as a thread about Colts players who are positive for COVID. I guess I should practice some of that optimism that I'm preaching. LOL Anyways here are the things I'm most excited for this upcoming season: The re-emergence of Nyheim Hines - get the ball in that man's hands with some space and he can make great things happen. Seeing his usage and role last year really upset me week after week. He can be one of our biggest offensive playmakers IMO. The growth of the pass rush - new coaching, adding a proven veteran and the growth of some of our rookies has me pumped. Out of all of the positional groups I really think we see the biggest improvement here which is going to bring this defense to an entirely new level. Maybe even top 5 in points against (we were 10 last year I believe). Matt Ryan - Really excited to see what he gives us. This guy wants to win, he is mature, smart, and consistent. This is literally the closest I've felt to a "Manning led team" since he left. I loved Andrew Luck, it hurt when he left. He was an incredible talent but he was also timid and kind. Ryan is a different kind of leader that I think works a bit better as the franchise guy. Jonathan Taylor - this one goes without saying right? Can he have another career year? Will be fun to watch. Development of our WR group under Reggie - I think people are underestimating this hire and what he can do for our young guys. He's a HoF'er, a world champion. He brings that mentality and I hope it rubs off on our guys. Betting on the Colts Futures to make a little money. For those who say we aren't close to winning the division, I say check them odds because Vegas is rarely wrong.

I liked Glow but was there a distinguishable difference when he was in vs Reed? Genuinely, if there are stats I would love to see them because anecdotally I didn't notice a difference. There was a reason he was splitting his reps IMO.

If last year showed us anything, we don't need stellar QB play to win big games. We need consistent and smart football. Wentz had less INTs than Ryan but let's not forget his INTs came in some extremely critical moments, as did some of his sacks. I am confident that we will be a better, more consistent and higher scoring offense than we were last season barring any major injuries. I'm willing to bet on that. I liked Rock and thought he was improving but CB play is not as important as line play. Better pass rush will make our entire secondary look better than it is. With the offensive rules the way they are I will take that trade any day all day because it will lead to more sacks and more punts opposed to getting beat on a 3 and 11 comeback route. I do agree that as of now we can consider it a wash until we see the proof. There are definitely weaknesses but I wouldn't say we have any major holes. No team has every position filled with depth. One position group will always be stronger than another. We don't have stellar wide receivers, but we have two extremely talented running backs that will be used in a far greater capacity this year. Our CBs aren't great, but do we need them to be great if our pass rush gets better? We have competent players at every position group with the occasional player who doesn't have a ton on tape yet but what they have put on tape has been promising (e.g. Pryor, Pinter, Rodgers). I do hope we resign Reed. Just curious, outside of Rock, what other player have we lost this year that you feel had the most positive impact on our team? I can't help but to look at this team and feel way more confident that we will be able to compete than I did last year.

Thank you. Anyone who says this team isn't better now then where we were last year on paper is crazy. We've improved drastically at critical positions and haven't really lost anyone that was some major talent for us, literally not one single person. Yes, we have areas of potential weakness but EVERY team does. This team can win a lot of games, count on it.

Solid points and do agree we have weak spots. Though I do disagree that we aren’t a better team this year, even before the draft. I definitely think we are better then we were last year. None of the guys we lost added much value last season outside of Odum and Rock IMO. Rock is offset by Yannick and that is a net positive. Replacing Odum will probably be via the draft. By mid season we were rolling out backups at both safety positions. We hopefully get a healthy Leonard and Khari and Blackmon back. This team still managed to win 9 games against some very good teams. Lost some really close games to playoffs teams, high seeds and Super Bowl winners. Every single team in the NFL has weaknesses and spots where they could use more depth, every single one. Our talent is spread out across all sides of the ball. We aren’t loaded one way or another and that’s ok. We can win with that.

Why can’t we compete against top teams? We competed in nearly every single game last year outside of the most obvious one, week 17. No team blew us out and there isn’t a single playoff team we played that I feel really out matched us. With better leadership via Ryan and the new coaches I think this team has enough talent to win many games. We aren’t the flashiest of teams but we don’t need to be. We will be in the division race come the end of the year and that’s all we need to worry about right now.