You see it in professional sports all the time. Teams upgrade their personnel via the draft, free agency and trades. They harness new energy from that talent and their collective efforts take them into the playoffs.
Last year the Indianapolis Colts fooled a lot of critics and made the post season before being thumped in Baltimore by the eventual Super Bowl champions.
No particular shame in that you say, as they crashed a party where they were not “supposed” to be. After a busy off-season that saw General Manager Ryan Grigson smash open his owner’s piggy bank and dive into the free agent waters to bring in new blood at a rather hefty tag, the Colts looked to again advance in the post season.
After an up and down year they again did arrive in the playoffs as a division winner and a home playoff game was their reward. They combined a great comeback with a Kansas City meltdown and set their sights for New England on the road.
That ended quickly when the Patriots, who are looking like Super Bowl champs again, ran at will against them and sent the home team back on a plane ride that probably seemed like it would never land. All the right things were said in the press conferences about having to improve on both sides of the ball and players cleaned out their lockers and headed home.
“Yeah, I think we fought until the end. We had our chances when we pulled within a score and tried to keep it going. We had big stops from (the) defense and offensively (we) couldn’t get over that hump – that final hump and we paid for it,” said Colts quarterback Andrew Luck.
The real question now is what’s next for a team that at times has been both quite entertaining as well as downright dysfunctional these past two seasons.
Conventional wisdom says back to the drawing board and analyzing the college talent that will be available in the upcoming draft, coupled with the trials and tribulations of free agency. Who you bring in and how many of your own you retain is a monstrous task in terms of getting it right. Grigson has had some success with that process, but like any other GM, some of the acquisitions just did not work out.
“At the end of the day we achieved one of our goals, but we didn’t achieve the last two and that was winning the AFC Championship and the Super Bowl. We’ll go back to work and figure out what we need to do in the offseason,” said kicker Adam Vinatieri.
With a 2014 schedule that features a large number of games against teams that did not make the post season this year, the Colts, provided the right moves are made in the off season, could do more than simply make some hay next season. Upgrading the defense with some play makers will be a challenge, but owner Jim Irsay has vowed to fund the process, and hopefully there will be some money left over to sign a couple of players to protect Andrew Luck.
With the uncertainty of the return of an aging Reggie Wayne, more help at the wide receiver position is in order as well.
Again, lots of items on this shopping list.
As with any team, you must evaluate the coaching staff as well. While I like and respect Colts head coach Chuck Pagano, he must take a long hard look at his entire staff, especially defensive coordinator Greg Manusky and his 3-4 defensive scheme that has produced mixed results. First year offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton gets a pass for now, but his run first strategy did not pan out for a team that threw the football 60 percent of the time this season. While some say he was brought in from Stanford to placate Andrew Luck, he too will face greater scrutiny in the upcoming season.
“Obviously disappointed, not discouraged. Certainly we wanted to play better than we did. We didn’t accomplish things we talked about we needed to do in order to come up here and win,” said Pagano. “Take care of the football, certainly we didn’t do that. Stop the run, obviously we struggled there. On third down we struggled. We didn’t want to finish this way but I’m very, very proud of this football team; very proud of our coaches.”
In a nutshell, the Colts do have some building blocks in place. They should win their division next year and again enter the post season. The maturation process of Luck will continue and a franchise quarterback is always the first piece of the puzzle. What they put around him and on the defensive side of the football is the key and right now there are a ton of holes.
Despite what the NFL likes to say, it is the futility of the league and not the parity that allows teams like Indianapolis to maintain their current status. Taking the next step is the challenge here, and things are about to get interesting. The fork in the road is upon those who call the shots on West 56th Street, and the water surrounding the castle is indeed a bit intrepid.
Stay tuned, as the show is just starting, but if I had to wager I would say you will see some big changes in the near future. Question is, will they work?
“We are building a program for sustained success and we’re headed in the right direction,” said Pagano.
Danny Bridges, who thinks Andrew Luck should always slide and live to tell about it, can be reached at (317) 578-1780 or at Bridgeshd@aol.com.
