At What Point Do We Start Changing Our Philosphy?

[horsefan123]

Peyton obviously isn't going to be around forever. When that time comes for him to retire, I would like for the team to be in position to have maybe one transition season as opposed to two, three or four. I don't think we need to grab the next QB right away, but I do think we need to start building towards both an offense and defense that can win games regardless of the circumstances. To Polian's credit, he did go after bigger O-linemen and a goal line back in the draft -- which we can build upon and possibly be more balanced on offense in the future -- but we're still pretty one-dimensional

Be honest, our pass heavy, "dome" offense and our "play-with-a-lead," "bend-don't-break" defense doesn't work without Manning, and we know it. It's frustrating to me that the organization has literally placed the burden of success of the entire team on Manning. Your defensive philosophy should never be influenced by how awesome your QB is. Your defense should be able to make stops, regardless...with or without a lead. It's basically calling for the 'best-case-scenario' as a prerequisite for the defense to be most effective. What an *ic concept to build around.

So if our offense is built around Manning and our defense is built around Manning, what are we gonna look like when he's retired? Why not start the transitioning period now instead of when it's already too late?

[GoColts8818]

They will change as things go alone, it's pretty clear they want to try to move back to the ground game to help save manning's arm. They aren't going to make major changes till Manning leaves though.

[Dtman513]

Things change with new coaches, players etc....

After the Manning era, it'll be curious to see which direction the team goes...

[Benz Owner 280C]

I think our best shot is to build a time machine and bring 2004 Manning to play for us

[nitecrawler]

Things change with new coaches, players etc....

After the Manning era, it'll be curious to see which direction the team goes...

Hopefully they won't go the way of the "post-Jim Kelly" Buffalo Bills...but, it won't surprise me if they do.

[natelombardi]

i agree with u the colts front office is kinda weak. should of been drafted a qb (aaron rodgers) heir tp peyton type of draft pick and switched the defence yaers ago peyton has never had a solid defence his whole career. since they never did any of those things start signing free agents peyton deserved better. put him on a .... team or get a gm who signs free agents and he has at least 5 rings right now

[shakedownstreet]

I think our best shot is to build a time machine and bring 2004 Manning to play for us

i don't see much difference in manning, that was just a different era

we still had a harrison in his prime, blossoming stars in wayne & clark, and brandon stokley. plus we had edge & the play action to go with it.

[nitecrawler]

i agree with u the colts front office is kinda weak. should of been drafted a qb (aaron rodgers) heir tp peyton type of draft pick and switched the defence yaers ago peyton has never had a solid defence his whole career. since they never did any of those things start signing free agents peyton deserved better. put him on a .... team or get a gm who signs free agents and he has at least 5 rings right now

The "build thru the draft and don't sign hi-priced FA's" strategy can work but it demands that your early draft picks play like early draft picks and you can not have too many misses. If there are multiple years where your early draft picks play like late round utility players (or spend more time on IR than on the field)and you still refuse to add quality thru free-agency, you end up where the Colts are now.

A team starting back-ups.

Some of the players taken in the first 3 rounds from 2006-2010: Addai, Tim Jennings, Freddie Keiaho, Daymein Hughes, Anthony Gonzalez, Tony Ugoh, Mike Pollak, Philip Wheeler, Donald Brown, Kevin Thomas, Jerry Hughes.

[Benz Owner 280C]

Peyton was younger in 2004 so we keep doing that every 8 years and Peyton will be our QB forever

[Harrison]

We don't, we just do everything in our power to get Andrew Luck and turn him into the next Hall of Fame quarterback, just as Aaron Rogers replacing Brett Farve a few years ago.

[everybodysgotone]

Peyton obviously isn't going to be around forever. When that time comes for him to retire, I would like for the team to be in position to have maybe one transition season as opposed to two, three or four. I don't think we need to grab the next QB right away, but I do think we need to start building towards both an offense and defense that can win games regardless of the circumstances. To Polian's credit, he did go after bigger O-linemen and a goal line back in the draft -- which we can build upon and possibly be more balanced on offense in the future -- but we're still pretty one-dimensional

Be honest, our pass heavy, "dome" offense and our "play-with-a-lead," "bend-don't-break" defense doesn't work without Manning, and we know it. It's frustrating to me that the organization has literally placed the burden of success of the entire team on Manning. Your defensive philosophy should never be influenced by how awesome your QB is. Your defense should be able to make stops, regardless...with or without a lead. It's basically calling for the 'best-case-scenario' as a prerequisite for the defense to be most effective. What an *ic concept to build around.

So if our offense is built around Manning and our defense is built around Manning, what are we gonna look like when he's retired? Why not start the transitioning period now instead of when it's already too late?

Colt offense is built around Manning, but the defense around Freeney. I hear ya though. The team will build around it's strengths moving closer to the five year from now time frame. Maybe return to the Randy McMillan type days where we were among the best running teams. Or.....think Duane Bickett as the #5 overall pick in 1985, who was the best Indy era LB. Who knows. We don't even know what a Manning heir will look like at this point, or what other top talent will be available to us. Under Jim Irsay and Bill Polian the Colts have been a star-driven team with a huge have/have nots gap among our own players; however, things appear to be trending in a different direction under Chris Polian. It'll be interesting to see what decisions are made moving forward, but I very much like the way things have gone this entire off season. We're already seeing what could be new cornerstone five years from now in a guy like Castonzo.

There were other good Colt times before Manning and there will be more after. I'd take another Bert Jones or Jim Harbaugh (along with the players around them) type runs any time. We're gonna appreciate Manning all the more once his days are at an end though, that's for certain. The past 13 yrs have been just one way to skin the cat & even during that time the approach has morphed somewhat (EJ days in particular).

[21isSuperman]

Our defensive philosophy has been slowly changing with Coyer at the helm. He has made it more aggressive, which I like. On offense, we are starting to change our philosophy a bit now too. We have become more concerned about getting a stronger running attack going. I think teams falter when they try to make drastic changes quickly. I like what we have been doing so far; slow, subtle changes so we can adjust if whatever we are trying doesn't work.

[Benz Owner 280C]

What are we worrying about anyways? We have CURTIS PAINTER next hall of fame QB! The dude it a total beast have you see his passer rating? its 9.8 we will be fine

[colts74]

They need to wait until the 2013 or 2014 draft to pick up a 1st round QB. Peyton will have 2 or 3 years left and he can groom his replacement. He won't be like Farve and say he isn't at Gren Bay to be a mentor.

They took a step in the right direction this draft. The 2 new o-lineman should help Peyton now and hopefully they will still be around when Peyton retires. O-lineman can play 10 plus years. The rest is going to have to come by drafting players each year. We will need another RB by then and we will have to get Freeny and Mathis' replacements too.

For now we just be happy that Manning is still here and play dumb that he will be gone in about 5 years.

[GoColts8818]

What are we worrying about anyways? We have CURTIS PAINTER next hall of fame QB! The dude it a total beast have you see his passer rating? its 9.8 we will be fine

If Curtis Painter is the future I wanna stay in the past

[Benz Owner 280C]

I almost feel bad for the dude tho... He is renown for ruining the Colts perfect season and for being one of the worst QBs in the league

[GoColts8818]

I almost feel bad for the dude tho... He is renown for ruining the Colts perfect season and for being one of the worst QBs in the league

I feel bad for him too but I still don't want him as our back up QB. I want Sorgi back! Man whoever thought we would see the day we were pleading for Jim Sorgi?

[colts74]

I almost feel bad for the dude tho... He is renown for ruining the Colts perfect season and for being one of the worst QBs in the league

He is also known for being benched at Purdue.

[GoColts8818]

He is also known for being benched at Purdue.

That would mean someone would have had to watch Purdue football...j/k

[PatBeachIsBoss]

Gunner Kiel will be our no.1 pick in five years.

[Benz Owner 280C]

Why are most of our Colts players from Louisiana, LSU, and Syracuse?

[Jason_]

Our defensive philosophy has been slowly changing with Coyer at the helm. He has made it more aggressive, which I like. On offense, we are starting to change our philosophy a bit now too. We have become more concerned about getting a stronger running attack going. I think teams falter when they try to make drastic changes quickly. I like what we have been doing so far; slow, subtle changes so we can adjust if whatever we are trying doesn't work.

Could not agree more! I also like the fact that they're getting away from Dungy's "small but fast" philosophy and actually getting some guys with some size on them. A few years back, our starting DT's were Montae Raegor (6'3" and 285 lbs) and Raheem Brock (6'4" and 274 lbs). We didn't have a single 300+ lb DT on the roster if I recall correctly, but if we did he certainly never played. Now look at our DT's:

Fili Moala - 6'4" and 303 lbs

Antonio Johnson - 6'3" and 310 lbs

Drake Nevis - 6'1" and 294 lbs

Ollie Ogbu - 6'1" and 283 lbs

Tommie Harris - 6'3" and 295 lbs

Eric Foster - 6'2" and 265 lbs (hopefully will play more DE than DT)

Same is true of our LB's. The same years we had Raegor and Brock, our LB's were Gilbert Gardner (6'1" 228 lbs) and Cato June (6'0" and 227 lbs though he's bulked since his Colts days cause he was NOT 227 when he was here). Now we are going after guys like:

Pat Angerer - 6'0" 235 lbs

Kavell Connor - 6'0" 242 lbs

Phillip Wheeler - 6'2" 240 lbs

Nate Triplett (who I'm VERY interested in seeing how he develops) - 6'3" 247 lbs

Most of these guys are still very young and/or new to the system so they haven't really had a chance to gel and show what they can do as a unit. Hopefully the more experience they get, the better they will work together because these are guys who aren't going to just get bulled over by the opposition. They have the size/strength to stand their ground and that will do nothing but help in stopping the run.

[colts74]

Gunner Kiel will be our no.1 pick in five years.

I haven't seen him play, but if he as as good as advertised then I am okay with that. Though, I hope we don't have to stink it up so bad that we get the number 1 pick and pick our next franchise QB. I hope we can find one in the end of the 1st round or the second round.

[skadura]

Our defensive philosophy has been slowly changing with Coyer at the helm. He has made it more aggressive, which I like. On offense, we are starting to change our philosophy a bit now too. We have become more concerned about getting a stronger running attack going. I think teams falter when they try to make drastic changes quickly. I like what we have been doing so far; slow, subtle changes so we can adjust if whatever we are trying doesn't work.

more aggressive???? where??? you and i both know their 3 blitz packages they run(including the garbage/predictable nonsense where they line everyone up on the line and go cover 0 and 2 lb's blitz the a gaps, getspicked up everytime) and other than that its str8 base cover 2.

[buccolts]

Our defensive philosophy has been slowly changing with Coyer at the helm. He has made it more aggressive, which I like. On offense, we are starting to change our philosophy a bit now too. We have become more concerned about getting a stronger running attack going. I think teams falter when they try to make drastic changes quickly. I like what we have been doing so far; slow, subtle changes so we can adjust if whatever we are trying doesn't work.

This is how I feel about it also.

[Blue Horseshoe]

I almost feel bad for the dude tho... He is renown for ruining the Colts perfect season and for being one of the worst QBs in the league

Bill Polian made the team quit. You can't blame Painter for ruining the chance for a perfect season.

Painter simply played as good as he could, which wasn't good enough.