Heading into training camp, how much faith do you have in this team?

[Yoshinator]

We are about to hit training camp in less than two weeks. There's a lot of positives right now including a great draft on paper, AR is healthy, deep roster at a lot of positions, and excitement for a new year with a lot of competition. There are some downsides though. The secondary is suspect, we have to wonder if AR can stay healthy, and our schedule is brutal this year. I'm curious what people's level of faith is heading into training camp. Could give something to talk about.

 

Gave the option of 1 all the way to 10 on the poll. Let me know what you think, and feel free to leave a comment below!

[Yoshinator]

I voted a 5/10 right now. I love how the team is formed right now. I'd like to see someone stand out in the secondary and at the TE position in the next couple weeks. I would also like to see Richardson stay healthy through training camp and the team in general. I think we have a ton of talent and am looking forward to updates on how everyone is doing. The O-Line and D-Line are going to be great IMO. I'm looking forward to the WR/CB battles as well. 

 

If we stay healthy in training camp and have a few people break out in the secondary, my faith will rise for the regular season. These two things just happen to be our Achilles heel a lot of the time.

[TheNewGuy]

7-10 here. The secondary is a work in progress as well as AR. I am much more confident in AR though. The strengths are obviously the offensive and defensive lines which should benefit both of the aforementioned. I am very excited to see how this all plays out and hoping for minimal injuries and maximum growth. Go Colts!

[holeymoley99]

31 minutes ago, Yoshinator said:

We are about to hit training camp in less than two weeks. There's a lot of positives right now including a great draft on paper, AR is healthy, deep roster at a lot of positions, and excitement for a new year with a lot of competition. There are some downsides though. The secondary is suspect, we have to wonder if AR can stay healthy, and our schedule is brutal this year. I'm curious what people's level of faith is heading into training camp. Could give something to talk about.

 

Gave the option of 1 all the way to 10 on the poll. Let me know what you think, and feel free to leave a comment below!

Very easy schedule 7th easiest in league compared to 14th, 26th and 27th for rest of the division so dont need to be great to make playoffs just good. We are only thin at DB and thats the position with most free agent depth still left so easiest of all to fix if need be, Our O and D lines are both stocked which is nice.

 

Our LB's worry me more then most, Speed has improved every year but isnt top line yet and Zaire Franklin while he makes tackles and gets a ton of credit for it he also was third in missing tackles in the league with only 1.5 sacks and zero ints.  The reality is he needs to get much better this season.

 

Solid 7 of 10, if we sign a vet Safety will move it to 8.

[throwing BBZ]

 

 I'm really excited to watch our offense grow. If AR stays on the field I see us being close every week. Steichen and staff will be effective with penalties and turnovers and that gives us a lot of hope to win in the end.

 

[John Hammonds]

6 out of 10.  There are a lot of things to feel good about.  Our OL has been pretty much repaired from its dismal '21 and '22 seasons.  We've got young, exciting offensive players, and a young, exciting head coach with an innovative streak.  And if everything works out to its maximum, we'll be playoff bound.

However...

• We still wonder if UberQB can go a full game without being injured.
• Our deep TE room doesn't really have a sure-fire #1.  There are a lot of guys who could claim it, but none who truly stand out as The Guy so far.
• Our DL pass rush has a lot of sacks, but not a lot of consistency.
• Our LB's are among the league leaders in tackles while being pretty dismal at allowing completed passes.
• CB and FS positions have a lot of young guys, but not a lot of great guys.  If they don't mature like we want, we're sunk.  If they have a lot injuries, we're sunk.

Soooo....  yeah, if we don't have a lot of problems, and the young guys mature as planned, we ought to make the playoffs.  But if things go wrong, they're gonna go wrong in a hurry.

[SOMDColtsfan]

Hope is at 7/10 level..

[Solid84]

I’m at 7/10 right now. That can go up or down depending on what we hear from training camp and how the preseason games go. 
 

I saw a post on twitter today. A pundit was ranking offensive skill groups and the Colts came up 22nd. He summed it up with “Promise over performance”. Don’t known if I agree with the ranking, but the way he summed it up is very accurate in my opinion. We need the promise to turn into performance on both sides of the ball. 
 

I think the offense is closest to being ready while the defense behind the Dline is a bit of a mess in my opinion. 
 

Really looking forward to seeing our rookies in action - especially Latu and AD. Hope AR gets a full season of experience. 

[Dunk]

7/10 as well.

Like our O line, Wr, and running backs. Also think D line will make Db's jobs easier, and hopefully they can play tighter, and not give up those easy completions.

 

[2006Coltsbestever]

Before looking at the poll, I went 7. 7 does seem most people's choice. I have us going 10-7 and getting a 7th seed so I do believe we are a playoff team. AR has great potential, Flacco is even still a good QB, proved it last year. Taylor is a top 3 RB, Pittman is a good WR with experience now, and Shane is a good coach. I love our D.Line most of all. Our rookie will get at least 10 sacks, book it. Buck will be Buck as well. Franklin will be among the best at LB at getting tackles. Only concern I have is our Secondary otherwise I would've voted 8.

 

[2006Coltsbestever]

I give Houston an 8 unfortunately but we can change that opening day. Teams like the Chiefs and Ravens would get a 9 for example. I wouldn't give the Chiefs a 10 though, because no team has ever won 3 SB's in a row and they have had a lot of distractions so far. Colts are a 7, that seems fit with teams like the Jags, Dolphins, Bills, Steelers, Bengals if Burrow stays healthy, Jets if Rodgers plays like he did 2 years ago. The AFC is pretty loaded. I probably forgot someone lol. 

 

My early pick to win the SB are the Ravens, I picked them last season and they made the Championship Game. They couldn't play any worse than they did vs the Chiefs and still only lost by 7. Henry is a huge addition to that team. I had Lions winning the NFC last season - I was close there too, but I have a feeling it could be someone different this season. I haven't decided on that pick yet. Packers look sneaky good, and the 49ers are the 49ers.

[2006Coltsbestever]

I am glad Camp is almost here. Late June/and most of July is always dull. 

[Douzer]

8/10

From my armchair, this team consistently underachieved during the FR era,  I believe it made fans and pundits feel the talent was low, and everything good was far away.  I believe neither is true.

[NewColtsFan]

31 minutes ago, Douzer said:

8/10

From my armchair, this team consistently underachieved during the FR era,  I believe it made fans and pundits feel the talent was low, and everything good was far away.  I believe neither is true.

Never mind.   Figured it out.  

[John Waylon]

7. The arrow seems to be pointing up. I’m still not sold on the secondary, but I think the offense is going to be good enough to keep us punchy enough to deal with that most of the time. 

[Hoose]

I remain very concerned about the secondary. Safety far more than CB, but the Colts are playing with fire by not making a move in FA while some talent is still available. They have the money; pay a little extra if necessary but get it done. 
A vet FS just makes too much sense. After last season’s mess, I can’t see Thomas ever being an answer back there, and Cross is still a work in progress. This position needs immediate attention; until then, I see the Colts’ season as hoping to out score the opposition each week. That isn’t a winning formula. 

[2006Coltsbestever]

1 hour ago, Hoose said:

I remain very concerned about the secondary. Safety far more than CB, but the Colts are playing with fire by not making a move in FA while some talent is still available. They have the money; pay a little extra if necessary but get it done. 
A vet FS just makes too much sense. After last season’s mess, I can’t see Thomas ever being an answer back there, and Cross is still a work in progress. This position needs immediate attention; until then, I see the Colts’ season as hoping to out score the opposition each week. That isn’t a winning formula. 

Secondary concerns me as well. I am banking on our D.Line getting a lot of big moment pressures this year to help matters out.

[shasta519]

On 7/14/2024 at 8:22 AM, holeymoley99 said:

Very easy schedule 7th easiest in league compared to 14th, 26th and 27th for rest of the division so dont need to be great to make playoffs just good. We are only thin at DB and thats the position with most free agent depth still left so easiest of all to fix if need be, Our O and D lines are both stocked which is nice.

 

Our LB's worry me more then most, Speed has improved every year but isnt top line yet and Zaire Franklin while he makes tackles and gets a ton of credit for it he also was third in missing tackles in the league with only 1.5 sacks and zero ints.  The reality is he needs to get much better this season.

 

Solid 7 of 10, if we sign a vet Safety will move it to 8.

 

The SOS is a bit skewed in the aggregate by playing a handful of teams with really low win projections.

 

Colts play 6 games against teams with ≤6.5 projected wins (averaging 6 wins/team). Three of them have rookie QBs (DEN, MIN and NE), so it's hard to know what to expect. TEN is also two of those games. And they were competitive against IND last year with Levis...and have made offseason upgrades.

 

They aren't likely to go 6-0 against those teams so I am hoping for 5-1 or 4-2.

 

So what really matters is what happens against the other 11. And those 11 games are against teams with ≥8.5 (averaging 9.5 wins/team). Assuming they get 4-5 wins from the bad teams, they would still need to be 5-7 or better to improve on last year's win totals (and likely make the playoffs).

 

I just think it's a tall order. But as we saw last year, projected wins can be off (from a low and high point), so maybe some of those good teams won't be as good. For me, the relative difference between last year and this year's schedule is the biggest wild card. 

 

 

[CR91]

Well I have this team pegged at 12 wins so pretty damn high

[shasta519]

I went with 6/10. There are things to be excited about for sure. But they are fighting a battle on two fronts...depending on player development and banking on regression not happening. Every team has to do this to an extent, but I feel like the Colts are doing it to an extreme standpoint on both ends, given the secondary and age of the core of the defense. Not to mention a defense that was 28th in ppg the last two years.

 

The offense is less of a concern with Steichen calling plays and a better skill position group than they have had in a while. But it also has the biggest wildcard of all...and that's AR.

 

I think 9 or more wins is a successful season. And if that happens...then my confidence would be up close to an 8 or 9 because that means good things happened.

 

[ColtStrong2013]

I put 7, but it’s probably 7.5. I am an eternal optimist, and especially following last year and the circumstances of the offseason ( retaining most of last years team, getting healthy AR back, adding weapons and depth in offseason. ) 

 

with our schedule, veteran leadership, and a coaching staff that I really believe in, I think we can make some serious noise. I think looking longterm, some of the most crucial pieces are young and very promising players, so I’m both optimistic (more than ever since #12 retired) both in the short term and long term of the franchise. 

[Dingus McGirt]

FWIW - Robert Turbin and his co-host on the Sirius XM NFL radio channel put the Colts @ 22nd and 23rd out of the 32 teams.

 

I’m at 8/10.  The eternal optimist…

[throwing BBZ]

   

 

.   Colts fans are sleeping on S Jaylin Simpson.

  We are a prove it team. 25th 20th 15th all jabbering.

   No reason not to hope that we are a surprise team though.

[indyagent17]

1 We need to be a top pressure team and that means that Dayo and Paye need to be better. Latu needs to grow up fast because I do not trust our DB’s so this is a key 

 

2. Pierce needs to have a breakout season and Mitchell needs to back up the hype and a 17 game run for Richardson 

 

This team looks better than last year but we still have to win games 

[Hoose]

5 hours ago, throwing BBZ said:

   

 

.   Colts fans are sleeping on S Jaylin Simpson.

  We are a prove it team. 25th 20th 15th all jabbering.

   No reason not to hope that we are a surprise team though.

I sure hope you’re right about Simpson. But it will take time for him to become a reliable player. In the short term, I fear the Colts will be leaking oil in the secondary until they find a reliable FS. 
Hopefully, it will be Simmons to the rescue.  Plug that FS hole and things look a lot better to me. 

[lollygagger8]

Realistic: 5/10 since there are so many unknowns

 

AR - will he stay healthy?  

Will Paye turn the corner? 

Will Latu be as good as advertised? 

We have LBs that cant cover 

Secondary is mid at best 

I think the dink and dunk and middle of the field is going remain a huge prob this defense

 

Optimistic: 8/10 I'm hoping Steichen will pull this team together and all this will be pointless 

 

JT and AR on field at same time 

D-Line lives up to the hype

The WR room makes AR look like all pro 

Woods and Ogletree are monsters in endzone 

Matt Gay earns his paycheck 

 

[RollerColt]

21 hours ago, Hoose said:

until then, I see the Colts’ season as hoping to out score the opposition each week. That isn’t a winning formula. 

Gotta score more than the opposing team regardless 
 

This year’s offense needs to be a quick strike type. Get ahead early so the defense can be more aggressive. 

[CoachLite]

On 7/14/2024 at 5:37 AM, Yoshinator said:

We are about to hit training camp in less than two weeks. There's a lot of positives right now including a great draft on paper, AR is healthy, deep roster at a lot of positions, and excitement for a new year with a lot of competition. There are some downsides though. The secondary is suspect, we have to wonder if AR can stay healthy, and our schedule is brutal this year. I'm curious what people's level of faith is heading into training camp. Could give something to talk about.

 

Gave the option of 1 all the way to 10 on the poll. Let me know what you think, and feel free to leave a comment below!

I understand that fans are always optimistic before training camp. My problem is that I'm optimistic, too. The reality is that even with many talented players, winning is hard - really hard. It takes so much more than talent to win games, and that brings me back down to Earth. I chose 6/10. There are weaknesses in the Colts that need to be overcome to be a playoff caliber team. Probability tells us they will regress to their historical mean. Can they exceed statistical conditions? Maybe. We'll see.

[Dingus McGirt]

2 hours ago, RollerColt said:

Gotta score more than the opposing team regardless 
 

This year’s offense needs to be a quick strike type. Get ahead early so the defense can be more aggressive. 

The Manning Technique!  

[jvan1973]

1 hour ago, CoachLite said:

I understand that fans are always optimistic before training camp. My problem is that I'm optimistic, too. The reality is that even with many talented players, winning is hard - really hard. It takes so much more than talent to win games, and that brings me back down to Earth. I chose 6/10. There are weaknesses in the Colts that need to be overcome to be a playoff caliber team. Probability tells us they will regress to their historical mean. Can they exceed statistical conditions? Maybe. We'll see.

Historical mean?   There is no mean when the team is different every season.   

[smittywerb]

On paper, I'm an 8/10...but if I had to put money down, 7/10.

 

Positives (since last year):

- AR is back, but still holding my breath.

- Woods is back, but still holding my breath.

- We get JT for a full off-season.  Along with Evan Hull.  Think Hull is going to be an unsung hero with him being able to come out of the backfield and catch the ball

- More Experience for Shane

- Added firepower in AD, Anthony Gould

- Partridge coming into town at the best time with us getting Latu

- Flowers is back

 

Negatives (since last year)

- Who's our starting FS?  Can't be Thomas or Cross.

- Same scheme, but with an upgraded DL and Partridge, maybe we'll see this group blossom

- Not worried about AR's shoulder, but we need him to get as many reps as possible.  Him experiencing soreness is normal, but it'll also hold him back.  hopefully it doesn't hold him back too much

 

So if everything works out, I'm at 8/10.  Maybe even 9/10.  But my gut is telling me 7/10

[superrep1967]

I put 7/10 because of the secondary and small sample size from Richardson. We also don't know if Richardson can last a season or not although I believe in Flacco if it comes to that hopefully not. I'm not a fan of Cus Bradley and his scheme. I hope he proves me wrong with some new talent up front. It going to take career years in areas where there is strong talent. To makeup for the lack of it in the secondary. 

[indyagent17]

13 minutes ago, smittywerb said:

On paper, I'm an 8/10...but if I had to put money down, 7/10.

 

Positives (since last year):

- AR is back, but still holding my breath.

- Woods is back, but still holding my breath.

- We get JT for a full off-season.  Along with Evan Hull.  Think Hull is going to be an unsung hero with him being able to come out of the backfield and catch the ball

- More Experience for Shane

- Added firepower in AD, Anthony Gould

- Partridge coming into town at the best time with us getting Latu

- Flowers is back

 

Negatives (since last year)

- Who's our starting FS?  Can't be Thomas or Cross.

- Same scheme, but with an upgraded DL and Partridge, maybe we'll see this group blossom

- Not worried about AR's shoulder, but we need him to get as many reps as possible.  Him experiencing soreness is normal, but it'll also hold him back.  hopefully it doesn't hold him back too much

 

So if everything works out, I'm at 8/10.  Maybe even 9/10.  But my gut is telling me 7/10

I really think the coaching staff is high on Cross lets see if he takes a big step forward

 

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

I have a ton of faith except on the secondary. I think we are pretty strong everywere else.

[JediXMan]

6.5 The Offense and Coaching has potential to be really good. The DL is also a bright spot. The reason the score is lower is the secondary. It’s just to young and inexperienced for me to feel comfortable about it. I’m also a bit concerned about special teams. Ever since he left the special teams hasn’t been as consistent.

[Matabix]

I voted 7. I'm super stoked for this season. Still think we'll get 10 wins and wildcard. We have an offense than can secure wins. We don't have a Nascar D line, it's an F1 D line. Regardless of wins and losses I want to make sure AR is our QB. I'm not a huge fan of Franklin. He's more old school ILB, than new age LB. Was hoping for a more athletic LB in the draft. Would like to see Blackmon at FS and Cross at SS. Not sure if Blackmon can cover sideline to sideline. 

[Myles]

I went with 5/10.  Mostly because there is too much we do not know about.   Will AR play all season?  I hope so but do not know how good he will be even if he does play.  The defense has question marks.   This team could win 12 games or they could only win 6.

[IinD]

Future is bright folks. We've got plenty of time for negativity. 

 

Can't wait to see JT and AR working together. Can't wait to see AD with a chip on his shoulder with Downs a year better and our guy Pittman doing his thing.

 

As we've learned in the past, if you've got a solid O your defense could be suspect in spots and you can still have success.

 

I think Coach Shane will be even better this year. The guy was coming off a SB season with Philly so he had no off-season working until Feb then straight to us and started working.

 

I'm a solid 7 or 8. Go Colts. Looking forward to buying me some playoff tickets this year.

[Defjamz26]

7/10

 

The secondary is most of my worries. I don’t care that the TE group is a mixed bag, that’s not a premium position. For the first time in years I’m actually extremely happy with our receiver room. AR is healthy, JT is too. I’m just worried about the young secondary.

[hoosierhawk]

7/10

AR is the wild card and so is the Secondary. Would love Simmons but rumor he wants to go to SB contender. Does he consider us one? We have some bucks to improve secondary and feel we will once into training camp and coaches can better get a grip on what we have and what we need.