A Look Back at the Last Colts Playoff Team (2014)

[Caleb3502]

Only 6 Colts Players Remain from the 2014 Colts Team: Luck, Hilton, Castonzo, Doyle, Vinatieri, Swoope (PS).  Here's a look back at that roster and where those players are now.  I'm only going through players on the final active roster.  All players on Injured Reserve that year are out of the football, except Ulrick John (IR on Patriots), Shawn Loiseau (Massachusetts Pirates of the National Arena League), and Robert Mathis (Pass Rush Consultant for the Colts).  All players on the PS are out of football, except Kadron Boone (Saskatchewan Roughriders), Ryan Lankford (Winnipeg Blue Bombers), Kelcy Quarles (Edmonton Eskimos), and Erik Swoope (Colts PS).  

 

Andrew Luck: Comeback Player and MVP Candidate 

Matt Hasselbeck: ESPN Analyst 

 

Dan Herron: Out of NFL 

Michael Hill: Out of NFL 

Trent Richardson: Plays for the Birmingham Lions of the Alliance of American Football League (Co-Founded by Bill Polian)

Zurlon Tipton: Sadley passed away in 2016 

 

Josh Cribbs: Special Teams Coaching Intern for the Browns 

T.Y. Hilton: Still shredding teams with a bad ankle 

Donte Moncrief: Around 700 yards and 3 TDs for the Jaguars this year 

Hakeem Nicks: Out of NFL 

Reggie Wayne: NFL Network Analyst 

Griff Whalen: NFL Free Agent, with the Raiders during the Pre-Season this year

 

Coby Fleener: NFL Free Agent 

Jack Doyle: On IR for the Colts 

Dwayne Allen: 3 Catches for 27 Yards for the Patriots this year 

 

David Arkin: Out of NFL 

Anthony Castonzo: LT for the Colts 

Jonotthan Harrison: Started 8 games at C for the Jets this year 

Khaled Holmes: Out of NFL 

Lance Louis: Out of NFL 

Jack Mewhort: Out of NFL/Retired 

Xavier Nixon: Out of NFL 

Joe Reitz: Out of NFL/Retired 

A.Q. Shipley: IR on the Cardinals 

 

Josh Chapman: Out of NFL 

Montori Hughes: NFL Free Agent, Was Signed to the Redskins on a Futures Contract and Cut on April 30, 2018

Ricky Jean-Francois: 2 Sacks for the Lions this year 

Arthur Jones: Out of NFL/Retired 

Zach Kerr: 1.5 Sacks for the Broncos this year 

Cory Redding: Out of NFL/Retired 

 

Jerrell Freeman: Out of NFL/Retired 

D'Qwell Jackson: Out of NFL/Retired 

Andrew Jackson: Plays for the Alliance Memphis of the Alliance of American Football League 

Henoc Muamba: Plays for the Montral Alouettes of the Canadian Football League 

Jonathan Newsome: Plays for the Ottawa Redblacks of the Canadian Football League 

Shaun Phillips: Out of NFL/Retired 

Andy Studebaker: Out of NFL 

Erik Walden: NFL Free Agent, Signed to Seahawks and later released from IR 

Bjorn Werner: Color Commentator for German broadcaster Sat. 1 

 

Mike Adams: 3 INTs for the Panthers this year 

Colt Anderson: Out of NFL 

Jalil Brown: Out of NFL 

Sergio Brown: Out of NFL 

Darius Butler: NFL Free Agent 

Vontae Davis: Out of NFL/Retired 

Josh Gordy: Out of NFL 

LaRon Landry: Out of NFL 

Dewey McDonald: NFL Free Agent 

Sheldon Price: NFL Free Agent, Signed Futures Contract with Chiefs and was cut on May 1, 2018 

Greg Toler: Out of NFL 

 

Pat McAfee: Fox Sports Broadcaster and Co-Host for the WWE 

Matt Overton: Played for the Jaguars this year 

Adam Vinatieri: Still kicking 

 

Team Leaders that Year in Stats: 

 

Luck with 4,761 Yards and 40 TDs 

Trent Richardson with 519 Yards and 3 TDs (Tied with Luck)

T.Y. Hilton with 1,345 Yards

Coby Fleener and Dwayne Allen tied with 8 TDs

 

D'Qwell Jackson with 167 Tackles 

Jonathan Newsome with 6.5 Sacks and 4 FF 

Mike Adams with 5 INTs

 

 

 

 

 

[Jackie Daytona]

Dang.... that really highlights the age/dearth of Talent problems of the last regime.....  all the young colts from 4 years ago are in Canada, Minor leagues, our out.....  the vets were largely so old 4 years ago that they are all done now....

 

There was talent on that team, but really no depth.....

[HOZER]

Really makes me wonder how different the team would be if we still had a few of those players, mainly Moncrief and Allen. Could Donte have truly been that #2 we were missing all season?  Ebron and Allen together? I know why they were allowed to leave......pretty interesting, thanks for posting.

[dodsworth]

1 hour ago, HOZER said:

Really makes me wonder how different the team would be if we still had a few of those players, mainly Moncrief and Allen. Could Donte have truly been that #2 we were missing all season?  Ebron and Allen together? I know why they were allowed to leave......pretty interesting, thanks for posting.

Ballard has a specific mindset he wants in his players, so these guys may have not

met his standards.

[Arodgers12]

Where is Eric Walden nowadays?

[ManningGM]

1 hour ago, HOZER said:

Really makes me wonder how different the team would be if we still had a few of those players, mainly Moncrief and Allen. Could Donte have truly been that #2 we were missing all season?  Ebron and Allen together? I know why they were allowed to leave......pretty interesting, thanks for posting.

Moncrief is garbage. 

 

Dude does the same corny celebration every time he happens to score a touchdown.

[coltsfan_canada]

I thought Maniac break the record for most tackle set by D'Qwell Jackson I guess I was wrong

 

Out of this list only player I really liked was Mike Adam

[colt18]

sheesh, that's terribad

 

 

e: I really liked Jonathan Newsome, we should take another look at him.

 

 

[NorthernBlue]

Good lord how the * did that team make a championship game?

[Caleb3502]

3 hours ago, coltsfan_canada said:

I thought Maniac break the record for most tackle set by D'Qwell Jackson I guess I was wrong

 

Out of this list only player I really liked was Mike Adam

I was using Pro Football Reference for the statistics.  However, when I checked ESPN it said 140 and NFL.com gave him 138.  However, I believe 140 is the correct number, so an error on my part.  

[Caleb3502]

4 hours ago, Arodgers12 said:

Where is Eric Walden nowadays?

After being released from Seattle's IR with an injury settlement, he had a workout with the 49ers, but that was back in the second week of September.   At 33 years old and with being months unsigned, it looks like his career is about finished.   

[Caleb3502]

1 hour ago, NorthernBlue said:

Good lord how the * did that team make a championship game?

Playing the Bengals in the Wild Card Round and playing an aging Peyton Manning in the Divisional Round helped.  The AFC South was also weaker back then.  I'm still amazed we won 11 games with such a one dimensional offense.  We had the 22th most rush yards and tied for 24th for most rushing TDs, with 3 of them from Luck.  Our run game has come a long way since then, as with our defense.  This current team is far better than the one in 2014, hopefully it can surpass it in terms of playoff success.  

[Tsarquise]

Seriously, though, why didn't we resign Moncrief? He couldn't have been expensive, and he is decent. 

[coming on strong]

4 hours ago, ManningGM said:

Moncrief is garbage. 

 

Dude does the same corny celebration every time he happens to score a touchdown.

you sound like a bitter ex moncrief is good almost 1000 yards on the jags with bortles is amzing he is better then our other wrs except hilton

[crazycolt1]

9 minutes ago, Tsarquise said:

Seriously, though, why didn't we resign Moncrief? He couldn't have been expensive, and he is decent. 

According to 90% of the posters in this forum he should have been cut before his rookie contract was even up.

[Tsarquise]

24 minutes ago, crazycolt1 said:

According to 90% of the posters in this forum he should have been cut before his rookie contract was even up.

Really? I thought people liked him here. I remember every saying "feed Moncrief!"

 

But, yeah, I wish he was still on the team. We could use him.

 

He already had rapport with Luck. 

 

I don't think he was expensive, either. 

 

Doesn't make sense that we didn't re-sign him. 

 

 

[ColtsBlitz]

Guessing Trent Cole is also out of football? Sheesh. Idk how we ever managed to build our team back up in 4 years like we did with only 8 remaining pieces like that

[crazycolt1]

43 minutes ago, Tsarquise said:

Really? I thought people liked him here. I remember every saying "feed Moncrief!"

 

But, yeah, I wish he was still on the team. We could use him.

 

He already had rapport with Luck. 

 

I don't think he was expensive, either. 

 

Doesn't make sense that we didn't re-sign him. 

 

 

I was one of the few who thought Moncrief wasn't used properly. He was very good at catching TDs from Luck but wasn't looked at very much for anything else. Thus the feed comments.

The larger part of the forum members were more down because his numbers just weren't there.

[NorthernBlue]

2 hours ago, Caleb3502 said:

Playing the Bengals in the Wild Card Round and playing an aging Peyton Manning in the Divisional Round helped.  The AFC South was also weaker back then.  I'm still amazed we won 11 games with such a one dimensional offense.  We had the 22th most rush yards and tied for 24th for most rushing TDs, with 3 of them from Luck.  Our run game has come a long way since then, as with our defense.  This current team is far better than the one in 2014, hopefully it can surpass it in terms of playoff success.  

The 2012-2014 Colts were perhaps the luckiest team in the league. 

 

Yeah from 2012-2014 Tennessee and Jacksonville were straight trash, and Houston didn't have a QB that could compete with Luck. We had a favourable schedule and I remember in that 2014 championship season we lost to nearly all the good teams we faced (Pats, Cowboys, Eagles, Broncos, Steelers, and quiet badly too). We got by on the performance of a few star players (Luck, Hilton, Mathis, Wayne etc). That gave the old regime the idea that we were close to a championship and splurged on luxury pieces.

 

I'm confident that even if the Colts shock everyone and go far in the playoffs, Ballard will not deviate from the plan. (Keep building the core, stack the trenches with talent, stay modest in FA for now).

[crazycolt1]

36 minutes ago, NorthernBlue said:

The 2012-2014 Colts were perhaps the luckiest team in the league. 

 

Yeah from 2012-2014 Tennessee and Jacksonville were straight trash, and Houston didn't have a QB that could compete with Luck. We had a favourable schedule and I remember in that 2014 championship season we lost to nearly all the good teams we faced (Pats, Cowboys, Eagles, Broncos, Steelers, and quiet badly too). We got by on the performance of a few star players (Luck, Hilton, Mathis, Wayne etc). That gave the old regime the idea that we were close to a championship and splurged on luxury pieces.

 

I'm confident that even if the Colts shock everyone and go far in the playoffs, Ballard will not deviate from the plan. (Keep building the core, stack the trenches with talent, stay modest in FA for now).

I think the Colts have already shocked everyone.

Even if they don't go far into the playoffs I think Ballard stays on coarse. If it's not broke, don't fix it.

[Smoke317]

What I remember most about that 2014 playoff team is that in our biggest game of the year (AFC Championship Game), That year’s number 1 pick (T. Richardson) and the prior year’s number 1 pick (B. Woerner) were both inactive for that game.  And not for injury reasons...  I assure you that has never happened in NFL history where two consecutive number 1 picks weren’t even good enough to be active.  That should have told Mr. Irsay all he needed to know about Grigson.

[2006Coltsbestever]

In 2014 we had a Good team and Luck had his best season with 40 TD's and 4700 Yards. We also beat the Broncos at Denver when we were 8 point underdogs in the Divisional Round. People say Manning wasn't right, Manning was better in 2014 than he was in 2015 and Denver won the SB in 2015. Luck played well vs Von Miller and his Defense no matter how anyone wants to slice it. I am not buying we were lucky to make the AFC Title Game, that is nonsense. Had it not been for the Patriots we would've won the AFC actually. They were just unbeatable that season. Grigson failed to add the right pieces to the team in 2015 and Luck got injured and missed 9 games, we still went 8-8 somehow in 2015.

 

-Having said all of that I feel like the organization now is in much better hands and the future is really bright. I like Ballard and Reich better than I do Grigs and Chuck. Can't take away what we accomplished from 2012-2014 though, it happened.

[aaron11]

3 hours ago, Tsarquise said:

Seriously, though, why didn't we resign Moncrief? He couldn't have been expensive, and he is decent. 

the jaguars gave him almost 10 million this year, with incentives for another 2.7 million that i doubt he got

 

they over paid so he took it, but it was a one year and he is available again if you really want him back lol

[Tsarquise]

24 minutes ago, aaron11 said:

the jaguars gave him almost 10 million this year, with incentives for another 2.7 million that i doubt he got

 

they over paid so he took it, but it was a one year and he is available again if you really want him back lol

Just want him back for the playoffs. Lol

[ColtsSouljah]

This is crazy on a couple different levels. Wow.

[Pacergeek]

I forgot all about Corey Redding. He was one of our top defenders. Put him on this year’s defense, he probably gets the John Simon treatment 

[2006Coltsbestever]

Here is Andrew Lucks 1st 6 seasons of his career:

2012 = 11-5, 54.1 Comp%, 23 TD's, 18 INT's, 4374 Yards

2013 = 11-5, 60.2 Comp%, 23 TD's, 9 INT's, 3822 Yards

2014 = 11-5, 61.7 Comp%, 40 TD's, 16 INT's, 4761 Yards

2015 = 2-5, 55.3 Comp%, 15 TD's, 12 INT's, 1881 Yards

2016 = 8-7, 63.5 Comp%, 31 TD's, 13 INT's, 4240 Yards

2017 = DID NOT PLAY

2018 = 10-6, 67.3 Comp%, 39 TD's, 15 INT's, 4593 Yards

Totals = 53-33, 60.8 Comp%, 171 TD's, 83 INT's, 23671 Yards

 

-His teams are 20 games above .500 in the Regular Season when he starts and he already has 171 TD's and 23671 Yards. He also has 3 Playoff wins in his career including an AFC Title Game appearance in 2014. 

 

-I guess why I am Posting this is, do you guys think his 2014 Season (which is related to the topic) is better or this 2018 Season? I think for his 2018 Season to be considered just as good he has to make the AFC Title Game like in 2014.

[AZColt11]

8 minutes ago, 2006Coltsbestever said:

Here is Andrew Lucks 1st 6 seasons of his career:

2012 = 11-5, 54.1 Comp%, 23 TD's, 18 INT's, 4374 Yards

2013 = 11-5, 60.2 Comp%, 23 TD's, 9 INT's, 3822 Yards

2014 = 11-5, 61.7 Comp%, 40 TD's, 16 INT's, 4761 Yards

2015 = 2-5, 55.3 Comp%, 15 TD's, 12 INT's, 1881 Yards

2016 = 8-7, 63.5 Comp%, 31 TD's, 13 INT's, 4240 Yards

2017 = DID NOT PLAY

2018 = 10-6, 67.3 Comp%, 39 TD's, 15 INT's, 4593 Yards

Totals = 53-33, 60.8 Comp%, 171 TD's, 83 INT's, 23671 Yards

 

-His teams are 20 games above .500 in the Regular Season when he starts and he already has 171 TD's and 23671 Yards. He also has 3 Playoff wins in his career including an AFC Title Game appearance in 2014. 

 

-I guess why I am Posting this is, do you guys think his 2014 Season (which is related to the topic) is better or this 2018 Season? I think for his 2018 Season to be considered just as good he has to make the AFC Title Game like in 2014.

I would disagree with the bolded and I'll tell you why.  In 2014 he had not been injured to any great extent and expectations were very high based off of his prior two seasons.  The Colts had improved each season and another step in the playoffs was EXPECTED in 2014 and he delivered on that.  In 2018, nobody even knew if he could throw a football heading into training camp, let alone play at an MVP type pace.  People just wanted to see if he could be reasonably effective let alone propel the Colts to the playoffs.  And yet the numbers are so similar it's amazing to think he was even hurt and missed an entire year at all.  That's why, to me, 2018 is Luck's greatest regular season to date regardless of how the playoffs turn out.

[2006Coltsbestever]

4 minutes ago, AZColt11 said:

I would disagree with the bolded and I'll tell you why.  In 2014 he had not been injured to any great extent and expectations were very high based off of his prior two seasons.  The Colts had improved each season and another step in the playoffs was EXPECTED in 2014 and he delivered on that.  In 2018, nobody even knew if he could throw a football heading into training camp, let alone play at an MVP type pace.  People just wanted to see if he could be reasonably effective let alone propel the Colts to the playoffs.  And yet the numbers are so similar it's amazing to think he was even hurt and missed an entire year at all.  That's why, to me, 2018 is Luck's greatest regular season to date regardless of how the playoffs turn out.

Yeah that is fair. That is why I posed the question. It's a fun discussion. A friend and I were talking about this earlier and it can go either way actually. For Andrew to play the way he did after missing the entire 2017 Season is amazing, can't debate that.

[Smoke317]

28 minutes ago, 2006Coltsbestever said:

Here is Andrew Lucks 1st 6 seasons of his career:

2012 = 11-5, 54.1 Comp%, 23 TD's, 18 INT's, 4374 Yards

2013 = 11-5, 60.2 Comp%, 23 TD's, 9 INT's, 3822 Yards

2014 = 11-5, 61.7 Comp%, 40 TD's, 16 INT's, 4761 Yards

2015 = 2-5, 55.3 Comp%, 15 TD's, 12 INT's, 1881 Yards

2016 = 8-7, 63.5 Comp%, 31 TD's, 13 INT's, 4240 Yards

2017 = DID NOT PLAY

2018 = 10-6, 67.3 Comp%, 39 TD's, 15 INT's, 4593 Yards

Totals = 53-33, 60.8 Comp%, 171 TD's, 83 INT's, 23671 Yards

 

-His teams are 20 games above .500 in the Regular Season when he starts and he already has 171 TD's and 23671 Yards. He also has 3 Playoff wins in his career including an AFC Title Game appearance in 2014. 

 

-I guess why I am Posting this is, do you guys think his 2014 Season (which is related to the topic) is better or this 2018 Season? I think for his 2018 Season to be considered just as good he has to make the AFC Title Game like in 2014.

Shhhh.... In 2014 Pep Hamilton was our OC and we can’t give Pep credit for any success we had...  Don’t get me wrong, Pep is no Frank Reich but going to Chud after Pep wasn’t the answer.  I’d like to have seen what Pep could have done with a back like Gore rather than a fraud like Richardson. He found ways to scheme us to the AFC title game and Luck to 40 td’s & near 5K yards with lackluster offensive weapons... Not too bad. 

 

I think this season is Luck’s best season though because his command in the pocket (always great) has improved.  Plus his accuracy on his short to intermediate throws is excellent. He’s just gripping and ripping and it’s beautiful.  No more aiming his throws.  Frank has clearly had a profound impact on Luck.  Also how many interceptions can you take off of Luck’s stats just from drops?  Who knows how many more td’s he’d have had this year without those drive killing plays?