Stampede Blue
CBS Sports appears to be sleeping a bit on the 2006 Colts, who had a number of future Hall of Famers and franchise Ring of Honorees.
According to CBS Sports’ Bryan DeArdo, the Super Bowl winning 2006 Indianapolis Colts squad fell just outside the Top 5 of their Lombardi Trophy hoisting teams since 2000—coming in at the 6th spot:
6. 2006 Colts
Overall record: 15-4
Super Bowl: Def. Bears 29-17
The ‘06 Colts had one of the game’s all-time great quarterbacks in Peyton Manning, an elite receiving duo in Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne, and a defense that came alive in the playoffs, holding their first two postseason foes to eight and six points, respectively. The unit, led by Hall of Fame pass rusher Dwight Freeney and 2007 Defensive Player of the Year Bob Sanders, forced five turnovers in the Super Bowl that included a game-clinching pick six.
This Colts’ most memorable moment was their come-from-behind, 38-34 AFC title game win over the Patriots, who had defeated the Colts in the 2003 and ‘04 playoffs.
Call it recency bias, or just how much the 2024 Philadelphia Eagles blew out the 2x reigning Super Bowl champion Chiefs this past Sunday, but they actually had this year’s Eagles in their #1 spot since the millennium—which call me biased, but I’m taking the 2006 Colts.
However, one could even make the argument that the 2005 Colts were even more talented than the 2006—who caught fire down the stretch in order to become a team of destiny and finally got the monkey off their back by winning an elusive Super Bowl. Meanwhile, the 2005 Colts suffered a heart-breaking upset loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers at home during the Divisional Round of the playoffs—which we don’t need to relive any further.
Among standouts, the 2006 Colts had Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark, Tarik Glenn and Jeff Saturday on offense, and on defense had the fearsome pass rushing duo of Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis, as well as the ‘Hitman’ Bob Sanders at safety.
Of course, all of this is just opinion and really doesn’t matter except for ‘sports cooler’ talk anyways; however, while they may take the 2025 Eagles, I’m taking the 2006 Colts all day.
Both teams had a lot of talent on both sides of the ball, but I think the difference is prime Peyton Manning at still the league’s most important position.
