Stampede Blue
What a difference a matter of just weeks can make.
On November 22nd, after a blistering (and surprising) hot start, the Colts sat at 8-2, featuring a historically prolific league scoring offense, and were the toast of the AFC—as the best team in the conference record wise.
The Colts had recently completed the trade deadline blockbuster for 2x First-Team All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner from the New York Jets, who many considered the ‘missing championship piece’ to a revamped defense.
Since then Indianapolis has lost 5 straight games, now sitting at 8-7 and their playoff hopes clinging by a thread, as things have quickly snowballed since starting quarterback Daniel Jones fractured his fibula, and after playing through it, only to suffer a season-ending torn Achilles injury just a few weeks thereafter.
Adding further injury to injury, both of the defense’s best players: DeForest Buckner and Sauce Gardner have missed multiple weeks recovering from a neck and calf injury respectively. Veteran starting right tackle Braden Smith (neck/concussion) and cornerback Charvarius Ward (third concussion) were also recently placed on injured reserve, joining their injured teammates.
It’s worth noting that Buckner returned during Monday night’s loss for the first time since Week 9.
Things started going off the Polar Express rails for Indianapolis once Jones was initially injured with the fractured fibula, and about to enter the New Year, that losing skid has only continued.
To his credit, unretired longtime veteran quarterback Philip Rivers has brought surprisingly efficient starting quarterback play the past two games—at 44-years-old and having not played in 5 years. Rivers was realistically brought in to stabilize the position as an emergency band-aid, not be prime Peyton Manning and carry the team.
The outlook for the current Colts isn’t exactly rosy right now, particularly on defense bigger picture.
While the team still has to find a long-term answer at the starting quarterback position, something that longtime general manager Chris Ballard has struggled with since former franchise cornerstone Andrew Luck shockingly retired ahead of the 2019 season, there are some nice pieces offensively elsewhere.
Even if star running back Jonathan Taylor realistically only has 2-3 elite seasons left and All-Pro guard Quenton Nelson is rapidly approaching 30, there’s Alec Pierce (*if re-signed), Michael Pittman Jr., Josh Downs, Tyler Warren, Bernhard Raimann, Tanor Bortolini, and Matt Goncalves.
On defense, the Colts core is starting to get a little longer in the tooth, as some of the unit’s best players DeForest Buckner (31), Grover Stewart (32), Zaire Franklin (29), and Kenny Moore II (30) aren’t exactly spring chickens anymore (and yes, you could fairly argue about Franklin’s inclusion here).
Going forward, what core defensive pieces should Colts fans exactly expect to be here in 3-4 years?
I’ve got Sauce Gardner, Laiatu Latu, Cam Bynum, and Nick Cross (*if re-signed) on one hand. However, outside of Gardner, could anyone of these younger defensive players even be considered stars right now?
The Colts don’t have their first rounds picks for either 2026 and 2027, as a...
