This is the Fastest Colts Team in Years

[Andy]

The Colts have changed a lot in many ways, and the speed of the team is one of the things that has changed the most.

Everything’s new, the quarterback, the tight ends, most of the offensive line, the defensive scheme, THE COACH! The biggest change that everyone is noticing is obviously Andrew Luck, as he is succeeding one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time in Peyton Manning. Also, the Colts have a new aggressive coach, Chuck Pagano. The Colts haven’t seen an aggressive coach since… hmmmm, Jim Caldwell. Just kidding, he sucked, since probably Ted Marchibroda. Some of the players that the Colts have added this offseason are: Coby Fleener, TY Hilton, Justin King, Donnie Avery, Lavon Brazill, Tom Zbikowski and Cassius Vaughn. What do these players have in common?

Speed.

The Colts had some great players in the past, but notice how many of them were never very fast. For a couple of years, defensive end Dwight Freeney was the fastest player on the team along with Marvin Harrison. The quarterback couldn’t run, and the defense had some quick players for their positions, but they weren’t necessarily fast. All those players that were mentioned before (Hilton, King, Avery…) would be the fastest players any Colt team in the last 10 years, with the exception of Fleener and Zbikowski. If look at every position now, you’ll see fast players. The new quarterback,

Andrew Luck, is a great runner posting a 4.67 40 yard dash and having many great runs in college.

The wide receiver spot is the fastest I’ve ever seen (out of any Colts team). TY Hilton is a low 4.3 guy, the same with Donnie Avery, and even Lavon Brazill is fast, according to Reggie Wayne who said that he was the fastest. heck, even Austin Collie is fast, as we’ve seen in the past.

The tight end spot has one of the fastest tight ends in the league in Fleener.

Freeney and Mathis are still very quick.

The secondary is also the quickest I’ve seen in a long time. Bethea has always been fast, the same with Powers, and now with the addition of speed merchant Justin King and Cassius Vaughn, it puts them over the top.

Now, I mention speed, and I say that this is the fastest team in years, but does that necessarily mean they will be good. A quick team is an athletic team. If a team doesn’t have much experience, it’s great to have athleticism. This offense is extremely athletic at every position. The thing I like about this offense that maybe you couldn’t say about the 2010 Colts, is that this offense has the potential to be more explosive with players like Fleener, Hilton or Avery. Those blazing deep threats add another dynamic to the offense.

On defense, it’s better to just have experience and ability in a 3-4, but with speed rushers on the outside and a very fast secondary (one of the fastest in the league), you could be looking at a top 10 pass defense, and that’s not a joke.

This is the fastest Colts team I’ve seen in a long time, and speed is something that could definitely help this team.

[Moncrief]

Basically we are a breed of the Eagles high octane, high flying, speed kills offense, whatever you want to call it and a physical defense of the Ravens. Not a bad combination

[chad72]

Basically we are a breed of the Eagles high octane, high flying, speed kills offense, whatever you want to call it and a physical defense of the Ravens. Not a bad combination

Yep, and a Peyton/Elway-caliber-QB-prospect, if he works out, I dig that combo.

Now, if we can keep that QB upright???

[Moncrief]

Yep, and a Peyton/Elway-caliber-QB-prospect, if he works out, I dig that combo.

Now, if we can keep that QB upright???

Now that's tune we can all dance to

[MAC]

I'm not quite following you Andy. It's true that the new receivers are quicker (no idea who will actually see the field along with Wayne and Collie, but they certainly added a couple of burners), but our defense has relied on speed for a decade. Many people complained about it because it correlated with a lack of size. Aren't they working hard to change that? I find it hard to believe that our team in total is faster than what we've had in the past.

[Andy]

I'm not quite following you Andy. It's true that the new receivers are quicker (no idea who will actually see the field along with Wayne and Collie, but they certainly added a couple of burners), but our defense has relied on speed for a decade. Many people complained about it because it correlated with a lack of size. Aren't they working hard to change that? I find it hard to believe that our team in total is faster than what we've had in the past.

The linebackers were quick compared to other linebackers, but they weren't very fast. Now, the secondary is much faster, and now the linebackers are even faster. Back in the day, the secondary wasn't quick. Now it's one of the quickest in the league.

I'm going to dinner now, but I'll come back after and finish answering your question.

[Smonroe]

Andy, the only thing I have to disagree with is your statement, that "this offense is athletic at every position". If you mean the skill positions, I could agree.

However I wouldn't say that about the O-Line at this point. That may be true about our LT and C. Not sure I can say that about the rest of the line, at least until I see them play.

[Smitto]

The colts could very well be the raiders lol its not all about speed... But its great the colts finally have that

[Vance]

The colts could very well be the raiders lol its not all about speed... But its great the colts finally have that

Ban this man, his level-headed thinking and caution has no place here.

[haseo15]

It's great to have speed, but I would rather have a great route runner with good hands that can get open look at some of the top receivers. You don't have to have blazing speed to be good in the LG.

[krunk]

It's great to have speed, but I would rather have a great route runner with good hands that can get open look at some of the top receivers. You don't have to have blazing speed to be good in the LG.

We have Reggie and Collie for that. Especially Reggie

[Nobody]

Andy, the only thing I have to disagree with is your statement, that "this offense is athletic at every position". If you mean the skill positions, I could agree.

However I wouldn't say that about the O-Line at this point. That may be true about our LT and C. Not sure I can say that about the rest of the line, at least until I see them play.

I think that he was expecting you to infer that he didn't mean we have fast OL... Why would you look at it like that?

[Nobody]

We have Reggie and Collie for that. Especially Reggie

Yep, you need some guys with reliable hands and route running, but you also need some speed to open up the field.

[Nobody]

The colts could very well be the raiders lol its not all about speed... But its great the colts finally have that

We still have Reggie and Collie on offense, great possession receivers. Allen isn't very fast, and he and Fleener seem to have great hands. I agree though. But if we're gonna have a terrible secondary, we may as well be able to keep up with the players that are torching us.

[Smonroe]

I think that he was expecting you to infer that he didn't mean we have fast OL... Why would you look at it like that?

Gee, I guess I interpreted his sentence of "athletic at every position" to mean, uh, every position. I didn't say anything about "fast", I was questioning if they were athletic. We know Costonzo and Satele are. I don't know if the rest of the group is, based on their history.

Make sense now?

[krunk]

The linebackers were quick compared to other linebackers, but they weren't very fast. Now, the secondary is much faster, and now the linebackers are even faster. Back in the day, the secondary wasn't quick. Now it's one of the quickest in the league.

I'm going to dinner now, but I'll come back after and finish answering your question.

The defense that we run now demands more one on one coverage out of the cornerbacks because of all the blitzing we will be doing, which means many times the cornerbacks will not have deep safety help over the top, which this will require the corners to have top flight speed and better man coverage skills.

On the other hand the corners in a 2 deep zone scheme don't necessarily have to be as fast because for one thing they are covering a certain area of the field versus covering a certain person. Then on top of that they almost always have 2 safetys deep to help them in coverage if need be.

We have gotten faster mainly at the cornerback position, but we have gotten slower along the defensive line because this defense doesn't require the lineman to run and slice through gaps as much as the old defense so we now have several bulkier lineman who are doing more holding at the point of attack in order to leave the linebackers free to roam and make tackles. At least that is true when we are in 3-4 personnel. When we go to a 4 man line I think we will still play some(not near as much) of the old defense in passing situations because every team in the league runs some form of cover 2 depending upon the scenario. We are quite capable of doing so with a 4 man line consisting of Freeney, Redding(maybe Moala), Nevis, and Mathis.

.

I won't necessarily say we have gotten faster at the linebacker position. I do not believe Angerer or Conner are faster than Gary Brackett nor do I think they are quicker than him. Do I think they hit harder than him? Sure! Mathis and Freeney don't run much faster in coverage than any of the linebackers that we've had in the past. Overall I don't think our speed level defensively has changed much other than at cornerback. This is the major difference to me.

[21isSuperman]

I do like the emphasis on speed. I know some people didn't like how we were an undersized defense under Dungy (and I was one of them), but I really like how we made up for it with the speed of our front 7. Offenses had tons of trouble against our speedy defense in the red zone

[Indyswagger]

Our youth should be part of the equation when commenting on team speed. We are most definetly a younger team this year. I am not saying a veteran player cannot be quick, they just lose a couple of steps with age as everyone does. Veteran players use their experience to make up for that lost step.

Either way that you look at it, its a wash. We gained speed here and there and lost speed here and there. IMO

[CR91]

just call us the steelers

[LJpalmbeacher2]

The colts could very well be the raiders lol its not all about speed... But its great the colts finally have that

"just win Baby"

[coltsfanatic24]

we are a very fast team but we have to use our speed like the eagles, not like the undisciplined raiders.

[Hans Moleman]

Well, traditionally we were always the fastest team (or top 3) in the league because we sold out size and strength for speed, sometimes so much so that it was almost like we were drafting to be a parody of ourselves.

Our WR speed is upgraded, but thankfully, we've given up speed in other places in order to be bigger and more physical. I love being fast, but we needed more of a balance.

That shift should result in less injuries, as well. A group of Ferrari's isn't built to last in a demolition derby.

[Gavin]

Good analogy at the end, I like it

[jskinnz]

I'm not quite following you Andy. It's true that the new receivers are quicker (no idea who will actually see the field along with Wayne and Collie, but they certainly added a couple of burners), but our defense has relied on speed for a decade. Many people complained about it because it correlated with a lack of size. Aren't they working hard to change that? I find it hard to believe that our team in total is faster than what we've had in the past.

Thank you. For years, the Colts were thought to the fastest team on D. In fact last year, Phil Simms broadcast the Colts v. Packers preseason game and commented that it was breathtaking how quickly they used to converge on the ball and that it was very clearly missing in that game vs. the Pack.

Now they have made an effort to get some playmkaing skill players that are lighting quick like Hilton & Brazill but overall they have a desire to get bigger. And to some degree, doesn't bigger mean not as quick?

[ColtsBlueFL]

Thank you. For years, the Colts were thought to the fastest team on D. In fact last year, Phil Simms broadcast the Colts v. Packers preseason game and commented that it was breathtaking how quickly they used to converge on the ball and that it was very clearly missing in that game vs. the Pack.

Now they have made an effort to get some playmkaing skill players that are lighting quick like Hilton & Brazill but overall they have a desire to get bigger. And to some degree, doesn't bigger mean not as quick?

In general, maybe... but not always. I remember an interview with Tony Dungy about the Colts version of the Tampa 2 defense. The reporter was talking about team speed on D and asked is that why the Colts were always undersized; whereby Tony replied there are Big and fast players, and he prefers those. But where we drafted every season, the big/fast players were already off the board. So he and the Colts had to decide between big and slower versus smaller and faster. For a Tampa 2, the latter was preferred and that is what we chose.

So BIG and fast guys exist, but the teams doing poorly usually get them, or someone takes a risk and trades up for one.